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Lacandonia Brasiliana
''Lacandonia'' is a mycoheterotrophic plant that contains no chlorophyll and has the unusual characteristic of inverted positions of the male (androecium) and female (gynoecium) floral parts, something that had not been seen in any other plants, with the exceptions of ''Trithuria'' and on occasion the related ''Triuris brevistylis''. Description ''Lacandonia '' is a small mycoheterotrophic plant that lacks chlorophyll and has a rhizomatous, mycotrophic habit. This genus exhibits racemous inflorescences and bract-like leaves. The flowers are actinomorphic and are considered "inverted" from the typical flower arrangement–usually 3 (but sometimes two to four) stamens are in the center of the flower surrounded by 60 to 80 pistils. This characteristic where the position of the androecium and the gynoecium are inverted is unique in the known and described taxa of flowering plants.Vázquez-Santana, S., Engleman, E. M., Martínez-Mena, A., and Márquez-Guzmán, J. (1998)Ovule and s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mycoheterotrophic
Myco-heterotrophy (from Greek μύκης , "fungus", ἕτερος ', "another", "different" and τροφή ', "nutrition") is a symbiotic relationship between certain kinds of plants and fungi, in which the plant gets all or part of its food from parasitism upon fungi rather than from photosynthesis. A myco-heterotroph is the parasitic plant partner in this relationship. Myco-heterotrophy is considered a kind of cheating relationship and myco-heterotrophs are sometimes informally referred to as "mycorrhizal cheaters". This relationship is sometimes referred to as mycotrophy, though this term is also used for plants that engage in mutualistic mycorrhizal relationships. Relationship between myco-heterotrophs and host fungi Full (or obligate) myco-heterotrophy exists when a non-photosynthetic plant (a plant largely lacking in chlorophyll or otherwise lacking a functional photosystem) gets all of its food from the fungi that it parasitizes. Partial (or facultative) myco-heterotr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cleistogamy
Cleistogamy is a type of automatic self-pollination of certain plants that can propagate by using non-opening, self-pollinating flowers. Especially well known in peanuts, peas, and pansies, this behavior is most widespread in the grass family. However, the largest genus of cleistogamous plants is ''Viola''. The more common opposite of cleistogamy, or "closed marriage", is called chasmogamy, or "open marriage". Virtually all plants that produce cleistogamous flowers also produce chasmogamous ones.Meeuse, Bastiaan and Sean Morris. 1984. The sex life of flowers. New York, NY: Facts on File Publishers. pp 110-111. The principal advantage of cleistogamy is that it requires fewer plant resources to produce seeds than does chasmogamy, because development of petals, nectar and large amounts of pollen is not required. This efficiency makes cleistogamy particularly useful for seed production on unfavorable sites or adverse conditions. ''Impatiens capensis,'' for example, has been o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lacandonia Brasiliana
''Lacandonia'' is a mycoheterotrophic plant that contains no chlorophyll and has the unusual characteristic of inverted positions of the male (androecium) and female (gynoecium) floral parts, something that had not been seen in any other plants, with the exceptions of ''Trithuria'' and on occasion the related ''Triuris brevistylis''. Description ''Lacandonia '' is a small mycoheterotrophic plant that lacks chlorophyll and has a rhizomatous, mycotrophic habit. This genus exhibits racemous inflorescences and bract-like leaves. The flowers are actinomorphic and are considered "inverted" from the typical flower arrangement–usually 3 (but sometimes two to four) stamens are in the center of the flower surrounded by 60 to 80 pistils. This characteristic where the position of the androecium and the gynoecium are inverted is unique in the known and described taxa of flowering plants.Vázquez-Santana, S., Engleman, E. M., Martínez-Mena, A., and Márquez-Guzmán, J. (1998)Ovule and s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lacandonia Schismatica
''Lacandonia schismatica'' is a species of mycoheterotrophic plant in the Triuridaceae (although some taxonomists place the genus in a separate family; the Lacandonaceae.). It is endemic to Lacandon Jungle in the State of Chiapas in southern Mexico. It is known from very few populations and is considered endangered by the researchers who investigate this species. It, and its recently discovered relation Lacandonia braziliana, are the only known flowering plants which in its natural population has a spatial inversion of the reproductive floral whorls (ie stamens and carpels): the 2 to 4 stamens are positioned centrally within the flower, and the 60 to 80 carpels arranged in a ring around them. Perhaps even more remarkable than the reversed positions of male and female parts is the unique mode of pollination. The pollin grain never leaves the anther, but sends the pollin tube backwards through the length of the stamen, across the receptacle and then into the pistil from below. ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Triuridaceae
Triuridaceae are a family of tropical and subtropical flowering plants, including nine genera with a total of approximately 55 known species. All members lack chlorophyll and are mycoheterotrophic (obtain food by digesting intracellular fungi, often erroneously called 'saprophytes'). The heterotrophic lifestyle of these plants has resulted in a loss of xylem vessels and stomata, and a reduction of leaves to scales. The flowers of Triuridaceae have tepals which are fused at the base and contain 10 to many free carpels. Systematics The circumscription of Triuridaceae has been unstable and some taxa may be paraphyletic. Triuridaceae have been allied with Alismataceae (based on the free carpels) but the APG III system (2009) places them among the non-commelinid monocots, in the Order Pandanales. The genus ''Lacandonia'' is sometimes placed in its own family, Lacandoniaceae. Triuridaceae are included in the Kew Royal Botanical Garden World Checklist of Selected Plant Families and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chromosome Number
Ploidy () is the number of complete sets of chromosomes in a cell, and hence the number of possible alleles for autosomal and pseudoautosomal genes. Sets of chromosomes refer to the number of maternal and paternal chromosome copies, respectively, in each homologous chromosome pair, which chromosomes naturally exist as. Somatic cells, tissues, and individual organisms can be described according to the number of sets of chromosomes present (the "ploidy level"): monoploid (1 set), diploid (2 sets), triploid (3 sets), tetraploid (4 sets), pentaploid (5 sets), hexaploid (6 sets), heptaploid or septaploid (7 sets), etc. The generic term polyploid is often used to describe cells with three or more chromosome sets. Virtually all sexually reproducing organisms are made up of somatic cells that are diploid or greater, but ploidy level may vary widely between different organisms, between different tissues within the same organism, and at different stages in an organism's life cycle. Half ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Homozygous
Zygosity (the noun, zygote, is from the Greek "yoked," from "yoke") () is the degree to which both copies of a chromosome or gene have the same genetic sequence. In other words, it is the degree of similarity of the alleles in an organism. Most eukaryotes have two matching sets of chromosomes; that is, they are diploid. Diploid organisms have the same loci on each of their two sets of homologous chromosomes except that the sequences at these loci may differ between the two chromosomes in a matching pair and that a few chromosomes may be mismatched as part of a chromosomal sex-determination system. If both alleles of a diploid organism are the same, the organism is homozygous at that locus. If they are different, the organism is heterozygous at that locus. If one allele is missing, it is hemizygous, and, if both alleles are missing, it is nullizygous. The DNA sequence of a gene often varies from one individual to another. These gene variants are called alleles. While some gen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Autogamy
Autogamy, or self-fertilization, refers to the fusion of two gametes that come from one individual. Autogamy is predominantly observed in the form of self-pollination, a reproductive mechanism employed by many flowering plants. However, species of protists have also been observed using autogamy as a means of reproduction. Flowering plants engage in autogamy regularly, while the protists that engage in autogamy only do so in stressful environments. Occurrence Protists ''Paramecium aurelia'' ''Paramecium aurelia'' is the most commonly studied protozoan for autogamy. Similar to other unicellular organisms, ''Paramecium aurelia'' typically reproduce asexually via binary fission or sexually via cross-fertilization. However, studies have shown that when put under nutritional stress, ''Paramecium aurelia'' will undergo meiosis and subsequent fusion of gametic-like nuclei. This process, defined as hemixis, a chromosomal rearrangement process, takes place in a number of steps. First, th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ovary (plants)
In the flowering plants, an ovary is a part of the female reproductive organ of the flower or gynoecium. Specifically, it is the part of the pistil which holds the ovule(s) and is located above or below or at the point of connection with the base of the petals and sepals. The pistil may be made up of one carpel or of several fused carpels (e.g. dicarpel or tricarpel), and therefore the ovary can contain part of one carpel or parts of several fused carpels. Above the ovary is the style and the stigma, which is where the pollen lands and germinates to grow down through the style to the ovary, and, for each individual pollen grain, to fertilize one individual ovule. Some wind pollinated flowers have much reduced and modified ovaries. Fruits A fruit is the mature, ripened ovary of a flower following double fertilization in an angiosperm. Because gymnosperms do not have an ovary but reproduce through double fertilization of unprotected ovules, they produce naked seeds that do not ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Receptacle (botany)
In botany, the receptacle refers to vegetative tissues near the end of reproductive stems that are situated below or encase the reproductive organs. Angiosperms In angiosperms, the receptacle or torus (an older term is thalamus, as in Thalamiflorae) is the thickened part of a stem (pedicel) from which the flower organs grow. In some accessory fruits, for example the pome and strawberry, the receptacle gives rise to the edible part of the fruit. The fruit of ''Rubus'' species is a cluster of drupelets on top of a conical receptacle. When a raspberry is picked, the receptacle separates from the fruit, but in blackberries, it remains attached to the fruit. — In the Daisy family (Compositae or Asteraceae), small individual flowers are arranged on a round or dome-like structure that is also called receptacle. Algae and bryophyta In phycology, receptacles occur at the ends of branches of algae mainly in the brown algae or Heterokontophyta in the Order Fucales. They are spec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pollen Tube
A pollen tube is a tubular structure produced by the male gametophyte of seed plants when it germinates. Pollen tube elongation is an integral stage in the plant life cycle. The pollen tube acts as a conduit to transport the male gamete cells from the pollen grain—either from the stigma (in flowering plants) to the ovules at the base of the pistil or directly through ovule tissue in some gymnosperms. In maize, this single cell can grow longer than to traverse the length of the pistil. Pollen tubes were first discovered by Giovanni Battista Amici in the 19th century. They are used as a model for understanding plant cell behavior. Research is ongoing to comprehend how the pollen tube responds to extracellular guidance signals to achieve fertilization. Description Pollen tubes are produced by the male gametophytes of seed plants. Pollen tubes act as conduits to transport the male gamete cells from the pollen grain—either from the stigma (in flowering plants) to the ovule ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anther
The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filament and an anther which contains ''microsporangia''. Most commonly anthers are two-lobed and are attached to the filament either at the base or in the middle area of the anther. The sterile tissue between the lobes is called the connective, an extension of the filament containing conducting strands. It can be seen as an extension on the dorsal side of the anther. A pollen grain develops from a microspore in the microsporangium and contains the male gametophyte. The stamens in a flower are collectively called the androecium. The androecium can consist of as few as one-half stamen (i.e. a single locule) as in '' Canna'' species or as many as 3,482 stamens which have been counted in the saguaro (''Carnegiea gigantea''). The androecium in var ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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