AOBPreview originally published online on March 7, 2006
Annals of Botany 2006 97(6):1011-1015; doi:10.1093/aob/mcl047
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Anodic Asymmetry of Leaves and Flowers and its Relationship to Phyllotaxis
Department of Biology, Bellarmine University, 2001 Newburg Rd, Louisville, KY 40205, USA
* E-mail rkorn{at}bellarmine.edu
Received: 9 December 2005 Returned for revision: 22 December 2005 Accepted: 22 January 2006 Published electronically: 7 March 2006
Background and Aims New approaches are needed to evaluate the various hypotheses of phyllotaxis, and an examination of anodic leaf asymmetry may be one such approach.
Methods Data were collected on the direction of midrib curvature and leaf coil in Syngonium podophyllum, the location of floral buds in Acalypha virginica, the position of secondary leaves of Croton variegatus Banana and the relative size of half-lamina in Aglaonema crispum and Calathea ornata.
Key Results All five features were exclusively anodic with respect to the direction of the genetic spiral regardless of whether the spiral was clockwise or counterclockwise.
Conclusions Any phyllotactic mechanism must include some asymmetric component which cannot be explained by the prevalent hypotheses of contact parastichies, inhibitory fields, available space, pressure waves and auxin transport. The most favourable hypothesis is the primary vasculature explanation as it includes an asymmetric feature.
Key words: Acalypha virginica, Aglaonema crispum, anodic, asymmetry, Calathea ornata, Croton variegatus, phyllotaxy, secondary leaves, Syngonium podophyllum
![]()
CiteULike
Connotea
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
Flowering Newsletter bibliography for 2006 J. Exp. Bot., April 20, 2007; (2007) erm028v2. [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
