5 Related Species, Big Differences in Flower Production (IMAGE)

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

5 Related Species, Big Differences in Flower Production

Caption

Flower production is an important and widely varying trait in plants. Different plants have different inflorescence architectures, the physical structures that comprise flowers and the branches from which they hang. Variation can be great even within a single plant family, as shown in these images of five members of the Solanaceae family (from l to r): tobacco; pepper; forest nightshade; domesticated tomato; and wild tomato. Their average number of flowers, indicated at the top of each frame, varies dramatically, a quantitative range determined by changes in the stem cell reservoir, or meristem, during the maturation process. (see image below) The longer the maturation, the more complex the inflorescence and the more flowers a given type of plant generates, research from the Lippman lab at CSHL reveals.

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Lippman lab, CSHL

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