The formulation of the ABC model by a handful of pioneer plant developmental geneticists
was a seminal event in the quest to answer a seemingly simple question: how are flowers …

Plants attract mutualistic animals by offering a reward of nectar. Specifically, floral nectar
(FN) is produced to attract pollinators, whereas extrafloral nectar (EFN) mediates indirect …

Flowers are the most complex structures of plants. Studies of Arabidopsis thaliana, which
has typical eudicot flowers, have been fundamental in advancing the structural and …

Abstract Background and Aims Understanding the evolutionary patterns of ecologically
relevant traits is a central goal in plant biology. However, for most important traits, we lack …

How different organs are formed from small sets of undifferentiated precursor cells is a key
question in developmental biology. To understand the molecular mechanisms underlying …

The construction of classifications, as well as the understanding of biological diversity,
depends upon a careful comparison of attributes of the organisms studied (Stuessy, 1990). It …

Contents Summary 706 I. Introduction 707 II. Leaf zones in monocot and eudicot leaves 707
III. Monocot and eudicot leaf initiation: differences in degree and timing, but not kind 710 IV …

Background Plants in over one hundred families in habitats worldwide bear extrafloral
nectaries (EFNs). EFNs display a remarkable diversity of evolutionary origins, as well as …

Plants, unlike animals, have developed a unique system in which they continue to form
organs throughout their entire life cycle, even after embryonic development. This is possible …

Fruit length is a key domestication trait that affects crop yield and appearance. Cucumber
(Cucumis sativus) fruits vary from 5 to 60 cm in length. Despite the identification of several …