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Schisandra chinensis. Staminate and carpellate flowers. a Flowers of both genders in a single inflorescence (upper flower staminate, lower flower carpellate); b staminate flower with five white stamens; c carpellate flower with pale green carpels
Source publication
The organogenesis of staminate and carpellate
flowers of Schisandra chinensis (Schisandraceae) was
investigated with scanning electron microscopy, with
observations on the development of tepals reported for the
first time. The results showed that there is no interval
between the initiation of the last tepal and that of the first
stamen or carpel, a...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... inflorescences of S. chinensis are axillary, consisting of 3-5 flowers (staminate, carpellate, or a combination of both: Fig. 1a). The staminate flowers usually contain five stamens, which are white and clearly visible (Fig. 1b). Each carpellate flower has 20-35 pale green carpels, which are free and spirally arranged on the receptacle (Fig. 1c). The size, number, colour, and shape of the tepals are similar in both staminate and carpellate flowers. Each flower ...
Context 2
... inflorescences of S. chinensis are axillary, consisting of 3-5 flowers (staminate, carpellate, or a combination of both: Fig. 1a). The staminate flowers usually contain five stamens, which are white and clearly visible (Fig. 1b). Each carpellate flower has 20-35 pale green carpels, which are free and spirally arranged on the receptacle (Fig. 1c). The size, number, colour, and shape of the tepals are similar in both staminate and carpellate flowers. Each flower has 6-9 (-10) oblong tepals (Fig. 1a-c): the two outermost tepals are pale yellow and coriaceous, ...
Context 3
... inflorescences of S. chinensis are axillary, consisting of 3-5 flowers (staminate, carpellate, or a combination of both: Fig. 1a). The staminate flowers usually contain five stamens, which are white and clearly visible (Fig. 1b). Each carpellate flower has 20-35 pale green carpels, which are free and spirally arranged on the receptacle (Fig. 1c). The size, number, colour, and shape of the tepals are similar in both staminate and carpellate flowers. Each flower has 6-9 (-10) oblong tepals (Fig. 1a-c): the two outermost tepals are pale yellow and coriaceous, with marginal cilia; the innermost 3-4 tepals are cream-col- oured (pink towards the base) and membranous; and the tepals ...
Context 4
... flowers usually contain five stamens, which are white and clearly visible (Fig. 1b). Each carpellate flower has 20-35 pale green carpels, which are free and spirally arranged on the receptacle (Fig. 1c). The size, number, colour, and shape of the tepals are similar in both staminate and carpellate flowers. Each flower has 6-9 (-10) oblong tepals (Fig. 1a-c): the two outermost tepals are pale yellow and coriaceous, with marginal cilia; the innermost 3-4 tepals are cream-col- oured (pink towards the base) and membranous; and the tepals in the middle zone are transitional in both colour and ...
Similar publications
Schisandra chinensis, which has a high development value, has long been used as medicine. Its mature fruits (called Wuweizi in Chinese) have long been used in the famous traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) recorded in the "Chinese Pharmacopoeia." Chloroplasts (CP) are the highly conserved primitive organelles in plants, which can serve as the founda...
Citations
... Male and female flowers can vary in their primary functional characteristics such as stamens in males and pistils in females (Okamoto et al., 2013). The staminate flowers usually contain five white color stamens and each carpellate flower possesses 20-35 pale green carpels (Dong et al., 2012). The flowers are fragrant and bloom in the spring season (mainly April to May). ...
Schisandra chinensis (Turcz.) Baill. is one of the important traditional medicinal plants in East Asia. It is a dioecious plant with aromatic flowers. The female and male flowers of S. chinensis possess slightly different fragrance characteristics. The overall scent of S. chinensis flowers is quite similar to that of Syringa dilatata (Korean lilac) flowers. Hence, this study aimed to understand the aromatic profile of the hexane extract from female and male flowers of S. chinensis and to compare their profile with the hexane extract of Korean lilac flowers. The chemical composition of hexane extract was determined by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. In total, 67 different components were detected in the hexane extract of female (48) and male flowers (51) of S. chinensis; 32 of which were common to both female and male flowers. In regards to gender difference, 16 components were found only in female flowers, and 19 components were found only in male flowers. The results revealed that the most abundant components in the hexane extract of both female and male flowers were lilac alcohol C (9.53 and 7.00%), lilac alcohol A (6.55 and 5.71%), n-hexadecanoic acid (6.21 and 6.96%), linoleic acid (5.14 and 7.61%), β-elemene (5.12 and 1.99), and lilac aldehyde D (4.13 and 4.97%). The data suggest that the major compounds in the hexane extract of S. chinensis flowers were generally similar, but they varied quantitatively according to gender. The presence of 10 components in both S. chinensis and Korean lilac flowers may be responsible for their similar fragrance characteristics. It could be concluded that the different fragrance characteristics of these flowers may be due to the presence of several gender-specific aromatic compounds in minor percentages.
... Therefore, a variation in form and number of stamens might be caused by secondary loss of the perianth or part of it, as well as by the absence of a gynoecium. In addition, the maintenance of undifferentiated apical cells in the floral meristem (apical residuum) is probably related to the increase in the number of androecial whorls in Hura crepitans, as it occurs in male and female flowers of Schisandraceae in which the continued growth of the apical residuum forms a columnar receptacle with (Tucker and Bourland 1994;Liu and Lu 1999;Dong et al. 2012). Furthermore, mutations in some genes and environmental conditions are also described as causing meristic changes (Clark et al. 1993(Clark et al. , 1995Running and Meyerowitz 1996;Luo et al. 1996;Jacobsen et al. 1999;Fletcher 2001;Ronse De Craene 2016). ...
Hura crepitans L. stands out in the family Euphorbiaceae by being bat-pollinated, having inflorescences with a single female flower with a giant multicarpellate gynoecium at the base of a spike with a large number of male flowers. We described the structure and development of flowers of this species to understand the diversification of flowers in the family and how anatomical structures have adapted to bat pollination. Flower buds and flowers were fixed and embedded in paraffin and studied using scanning electron microscopy. Young male flowers are embedded in the axis of a spike. In both male and female flowers, the calyx is extremely reduced, the sepals united, in male flowers lacking vascularization. Petals are lacking. In male flowers, the androecium has 13–30 united stamens, arranged in (2)3(4) whorls. Female flowers have 11–14 uniovulate united carpels, each with a separate locule. The ovules are pachychalazal with vasculature in both integuments. The style is atro-vinaceous, forming a long column ending in a lobed stigmatic plate. Hura crepitans is similar to Algernonia and Ophthalmoblapton of Hippomaneae in the increased carpel number. However, flowers have some features that allow bat pollination, in contrast to the rest of the family which is more often insect- or wind-pollinated. Among these features are numerous stamen whorls with increased number of stamens, giant gynoecium, reduction in the perianth and a large stigma with central receptive surface.
... Importantly, it characterizes all early diverging angiosperms (ANITA grade plus Chloranthaceae and Ceratophyllaceae), irrespective of carpel size and ovule number. It has been reported in Amborellaceae (Endress & Igersheim, 2000b; Posluszny & Tomlinson, 2003; Buzgo, Soltis & Soltis, 2004), Hydatellaceae (Rudall et al., 2007; Sokoloff et al., 2010), Cabombaceae (Endress, 2001Endress, , 2005), Nymphaeaceae (Endress, 2001), Austrobaileyaceae (Endress, 1980cEndress, , 1983 ), Trimeniaceae (Endress & Sampson, 1983 ), Schisandraceae (Robertson & Tucker, 1979; Erbar, 1983; Tucker & Bourland, 1994; Endress, 2001; Dong et al., 2012), Chloranthaceae (Endress, 1987 ) and Ceratophyllaceae (Endress, 1994b). It is also common in all four orders of magnoliids [e.g. ...
Almost all angiosperms are angiospermous, i.e. the ovules are enclosed in carpels at anthesis and during seed development, but angiospermy develops in different ways across angiosperms. The most common means of carpel closure is by a longitudinal ventral slit in carpels that are partly or completely free. In such carpels, the closure process commonly begins at midlength of the prospective longitudinal slit and then proceeds downward and upward. Closure by a transverse slit is rarer, but it is prominent in groups of the ANITA grade and in a few early branching monocots (some Alismatales) and some early branching eudicots (a few Ranunculaceae and Nelumbonaceae), in these eudicots combined with a more or less developed longitudinal slit. In all these cases the carpels have a single ovule in ventral median position. In ANITA lines with pluriovulate carpels, there is only a short longitudinal slit in the uniformly ascidiate carpels. In carpels with a unifacial style the closure area is narrow; this pattern is rare and scattered mainly in some wind-pollinated monocots and eudicots. In most angiosperms the carpels become closed before the ovules are visible from the outside of the still incompletely closed carpels (early carpel closure). This is notably the case in the ANITA grade and magnoliids. Delayed carpel closure, with the ovules visible before the carpels are closed, is much rarer and is concentrated in a few monocots (mainly some Alismatales and some Poales) and a few eudicots (mainly a few Ranunculales and many Caryophyllales, and scattered in some other eudicots). A kind of delayed carpel closure (with the placenta visible before closure but mostly not the ovules) also occurs in syncarpous gynoecia with a free central placenta. Most gynoecia with a free central placenta occur in the superasterids. In such gynoecia the individual carpel tips are not differentiated but the opening in young gynoecia has the shape of a circular diaphragm. In this case, when ovary septa and free carpel tips are missing, the number of carpels is sometimes unclear (Primulaceae, Lentibulariaceae, some Santalaceae). Extremely ascidiate carpels are concentrated in the ANITA grade, a few magnoliids and some early branching monocots. Aspects of potential advantages of plicate vs. ascidiate carpels with regard to flexibility of pollen tube transmitting tract differentiation are discussed. © 2015 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2015, ●●, ●●–●●.
Background and aims:
Berberidopsis beckleri is one of three species of the family Berberidopsidaceae. The flower of Berberidopsis is unusual for core eudicots in being spiral with an undifferentiated perianth. In a previous study of the sister species B. corallina, it was suggested that Berberidopsidaceae represent a prototype for the origin of the bipartite perianth and pentamery in core eudicots.
Methods:
The floral development of B. beckleri was investigated with a scanning electron microscope and compared with previous studies on B. corallina and Aextoxicon punctatum of Berberidopsidales.
Key results:
Flowers are inserted at the end of short shoots, which are not distinguishable from a pedicel. The initiation of perianth parts is highly predictable and spiral with a divergence angle of 137·5°, in a progression of a variable number of bracts to weakly differentiated sepaloid and petaloid tepals. The androecium most often consists 11 stamens arising in a rapid sequence. Compared with B. corallina, the number of perianth parts and stamens is more variable and there is no evidence of an alternation of shorter and longer plastochrons leading to a whorled arrangement. However, the gynoecium is generally pentamerous and arises from five primordia. The carpels are laterally connected into massive intercarpellary ridges on which ovules are initiated.
Conclusions:
The position of Streptothamnus within Berberidopsidaceae is questioned. It is demonstrated that the floral development of Berberidopsis beckleri lies within a gradient from spiral flowers without perianth differentiation leading to flowers with differentiated sepals and petals. The arrangement of flowers in compact inflorescences in B. corallina and Aextoxicon leads to a more stabilized arrangement of organs in whorls. The inherent variability of the flower of Berberidopsis is well correlated with the limited canalization of flowers in taxa at the base of the core eudicots and could act as a prototype for the current eudicot floral Bauplan.
To further study the floral organogenesis and discussing the floral origin of Phytolacca, the procedures of floral organogenesis were observed in Phytolacca esculenta and Phytolacca zhejiangensis. The results showed that the floral organogenesis was consistent in Phytolacca. Their sepals were 2/5 helix, and with counter-clockwise and clockwise, usually the first sepal located at non-median of abaxial side. The first sepal of Phytolacca esculenta was initiated at non-median of adaxial side. There was no evident relationship between sepal and stamen initiating position, and the stamens initiated on ring meristem, they initiated approximately at the same time, and when the androecium member was numerous, they initiated centrifugally, the outer stamen initiated irregularly. Carpel initiated alternately with inner stamens. And the carpels connected by septum, if the septum grew more, the carpel was syncarpous at morphology, otherwise the carpel was apocarpous at morphology. So the syncarpous and the apocarpous have no successively relationship on evolution. Ovule initiated inside the carpel and opposite to carpel. Androecium, carpel and ovule initiated at ring meristem.
