Thome, Robert F. (Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, Claremont, CA 91711). Classification and geography of the flowering plants. Bot. Rev.58(3): 225–348. 1992.—This treatment of the flowering plants is the latest revision of my classification of the Class Angiospermae and replaces my 1983 and more recent 1992 synopses. An update is necessary because so much new information has been published in the last decade pertinent to the classification of the flowering plants. About 870 such recent books, monographs, and other botanical papers are cited in the Introduction, listed primarily by the botanical discipline that they represent. Also considerable changes in my classification have been necessitated by my narrowed family- and ordinal-gap concepts, acceptance of the ending “-anae” for superorders in place of the traditional but inappropriate “-iflorae,” and acceptance of more prior or more widely used names for the categories above the family. A new phyletic “shrub” replaces earlier versions, and attempts to indicate visually relative sizes and relationships among the superorders, orders, and suborders. One table includes a statistical summary of floweringplant taxa: ca. 233,900 species of 12,650 genera, 437 families, and 708 subfamilies and undivided families in 28 superorders, 71 orders, and 71 suborders of Angiospermae. Three other tables summarize the known indigenous distribution of the families and subfamilies of angiosperms about the world. The synopsis lists the flowering plant taxa from the class down to the subfamily (and in Asteraceae down to the tribe) with indication of the degree of confidence I place in the circumscription and placement of each category above the subfamily, the best available estimates of the number of genera and species for each category, and the known indigenous distribution of each subfamily and family. Table V lists alphabetically the geographical abbreviations used in the synopsis. The extensive bibliography of recent literature should be helpful to those persons interested in the classification of the flowering plants.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/BF02858611.pdf

Classification and geography of the flowering plants

COMPARATIVE EMBRYOLOGY OF ANGIOSPERMS is a review of thedevelopmental processes leading to sexual reproduction inflowering plants. On the basis of embryological data andcertain evidences from other areas of study, it lays specialemphasis on the relationship among and within the familiesand orders of angiosperms. Occasionally, inaccuracies inobservation and interpretation are pointed out, alternativeinterpretations offered, gaps in our knowledge highlighted,and prospects outlined. The text is documented with 36tables, 376 figures, and about 5000 literature citations,which contribute to making this book comprehensive. Besidesstudents and research workers interested in angiospermembyology, taxonomists, plant breeders, agriculturists, andhorticulturists will also find much useful information inthis treatise.

Comparative Embryology of Angiosperms

Physical dormancy (PY) is caused by a water-impermeable seed or fruit coat. It is known, or highly suspected, to occur in nine orders and 15 families of angiosperms (sensuAngiosperm Phylogeny Group 1998), 13 of which are core eudicots. The Zingiberales is the only monocot order, and Cannaceae (Canna) the only monocot family, in which PY is known to occur. Six of the nine orders, and 12 of the 15 families, in which PY occurs are rosids. Furthermore, six of the families belong to the Malvales. The water-impermeable palisade layer(s) of cells are located in the seed coats of 13 of the families, and in the fruit coats of Anacardiaceae and Nelumbonaceae. In all 15 families, a specialized structure is associated with the water-impermeable layer(s). The breaking of PY involves disruption or dislodgment of these structures, which act as environmental ‘signal detectors’ for germination. Representatives of the nine angiosperm orders in which PY occurs had evolved by the late Cretaceous or early Tertiary (Paleogene). Anatomical evidence for PY in fruits of the extinct species Rhus rooseae (Anacardiaceae, middle Eocene) suggests that PY had evolved by 43Ma, and probably much earlier. We have constructed a conceptual model for the evolution of PY, and of PY+ physiological dormancy (PD), within Anacardiaceae. The model begins in pre-Eocene times with an ancestral species that has large, pachychalazal, non-dormant (ND), recalcitrant seeds. By the middle Eocene, a derived species with relatively small, partial pachychalazal, orthodox seeds and a water-impermeable endocarp (thus PY) had evolved, and by the Oligocene, PD had been added to the seed (true seed + endocarp) dormancy mechanism. It is suggested that climatic drying (Eocene), followed by climatic cooling (Eocene–Oligocene transition), were the primary selective agents in the development of PY. An evolutionary connection between PY and recalcitrance is suggested by the relatively high concentration of these two character states in the rosids. Phylogenetic data and fossil evidence seem to support the PY→(PY+PD) evolutionary sequence in Anacardiaceae, which also may have occured in Leguminosae.

Taxonomy, anatomy and evolution of physical dormancy in seeds

The Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique was used to amplify DNA segments, with the objective of finding markers linked to sex determination in the dioecious species, Pistacia vera Progenies from two female parents pollinated by a common male parent were studied Two bulks of DNA were made in each cross, one from males and one from females, by pooling an equal weight of fresh leaves from each individual contributing to the bulk prior to DNA extraction DNA was extracted from each bulked sample and from each of the contributing individuals DNA was also extracted from 14 cultivars of P vera and from 94 open-pollinated, fewweeks-old P vera seedlings of unknown sex Seven hundred different decamer oligonucleotide primers were used to perform DNA amplification, with 1 of these (OPO08) producing a 945 bp amplification band that was present only in the bulked female samples and absent in the bulked male samples of the two crosses The relationship between band presence and female sex expression was conserved in every individual obtained from the two crosses and in the 14 cultivars unrelated to the crosses We propose that this band is tightly linked to the gene(s) that control sex determination in pistachio The OPO08945 RAPD marker could be used in a breeding program to screen the gender of pistachio plants long before they reach reproductive maturity, resulting in considerable savings of time and economic resources In order to verify that assumption we screened 94 additional seedlings with the OPO08 primer and obtained results consistent with a 1∶1 male:female ratio

Identification of a RAPD marker linked to sex determination in Pistacia vera using bulked segregant analysis.

An analysis of rbcL sequence data for representatives of families of putative sapindalean/rutalean affinity identified a robust clade of core "sapindalean" taxa that is sister to representatives of Malvales. The constitution of this clade approximates the broad concept of Sapindales (sensu Cronquist). Five lineages within the order are recognized: a "rutaceae" clade (Rutaceae, Cneoraceae, Ptaeroxylaceae, Simaroubaceae sensu stricto, and Meliaceae); a "sapindaceae" clade (Sapindaceae, Aceraceae, and Hippocastenaceae); Anacardiaceae plus Burseraceae; Kirkiaceae; and Zygophyllaceae pro parte. Relationships among these groups were only weakly resolved, but there was no support for the recognition of the two more narrowly defined orders, Rutales and Sapindales sensu stricto. Several families that have previously been allied to Sapindales or Rutales show no affinity to the core sapindalean taxa identified with the molecular data, and are excluded from the order: viz. Akaniaceae, Bretschneideraceae, Conneraceae, Coriariaceae, Melianthaceae, Meliosmaceae, Physenaceae, Rhabdodrendraceae, Sabiaceae, Staphyleaceae, Stylobasiaceae, Surianaceae, and Zygophyllaceae sensu stricto.

Bruce S. Wannan

Papers

Floral structure and evolution in the Anacardiaceae

Pericarp structure and generic affinities in the Anacardiaceae

A taxonomic reassessment of Blepharocarya F. Muell.

Biflavonoids in the julianiaceae

Inflorescence structure and affinities of Laurophyllus (Anacardiaceae)