Floral anatomy of Delphinieae (Ranunculaceae): comparing flower organization and vascular patterns
Abstract
Species of the tribe Delphinieae have dorsoventralized flowers; their pentamerous calyx and reduced corolla are dorsally spurred and inner spurs are nectariferous. Based on this common floral scheme, Delphinieae species exhibit a wide diversity of floral structures and morphologies. We present here the first investigation of the floral anatomy in Delphinieae. The organization of the floral vascular system has been studied in species representative of the floral morphological diversity of Delphinieae: Aconitum lasiocarpum, Delphinium elatum, and Consolida regalis. The three species show a similar vascularization of the calyx and of the reproductive organs, but exhibit distinct anatomical features in the corolla where the nectaries are borne. The sepals and the stamens have a trilacunar three-traced and a unilacunar one-traced vascularization, respectively. Three free carpels in D. elatum and A. lasiocarpum are basically supplied by six vascular bundles – three independent dorsal bundles and three fused lateral bundles. In C. regalis the single carpel is supplied by three independent vascular bundles (one dorsal and two ventral). Staminodes are not vascularized. The basic type of petal vascularization is unilacunar one-traced, but in the case of C. regalis the derived bilacunar two-traced type has been observed. This latter state arose as a result of the fusion of the two dorsal petal primordia. The results of this first comparative study of the floral anatomy of Delphinieae are discussed with the recent phylogenetic, morphological, and evo-devo findings concerning the tribe.
References
Endress P.K. 1995. Floral structure and evolution in Ranunculaceae. In: Jensen U., Kadereit J.W. (eds), Systematics and evolution of the Ranunculiflorae. Pl. Syst. Evol. 9 (suppl.): 47–61.
Endress P.K., Igersheim A. 1999. Gynoecium diversity and systematics of the basal eudicots. Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 130: 305–393.
Erbar C. 2010. Floral organ determination and ontogenetical patterns during Angiosperm evolution. Int. J. Plant Dev. Biol. 4 (spec. issue 1): 1–16.
Erbar C., Kusma S., Leins P. 1998. Development and interpretation of nectary organs in Ranunculaceae. Flora 194: 317–332.
Gerlach D. 1984. Botanische Mikrotechnic. Thieme, Stuttgart.
Hiepko P. 1965. Vergleichend-morphologische und entwicklungsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen über das Perianth bei den Polycarpicae. Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 84: 359–508.
Jabbour F., Cossard G., Le Guilloux M., Sannier J., Nadot S., Damerval C. In revision. Specific duplication and dorsoventrally asymmetric expression patterns of CYCLOIDEA-like genes in zygomorphic species of Ranunculaceae.
Jabbour F., De Craene L.R., Nadot S., Damerval C. 2009. Establishment of zygomorphy on an ontogenic spiral and evolution of perianth in the tribe Delphinieae (Ranunculaceae). Ann. Bot. 104: 809–822.
Jabbour F., Renner S.S. 2011a. Resurrection of the genus Staphisagria J. Hill, sister to all the other Delphinieae (Ranunculaceae). Phytokeys 7: 21–26.
Jabbour F., Renner S.S. 2011b. Consolida and Aconitella are an annual clade of Delphinium (Ranunculaceae) that diversified in the Mediterranean basin and the Irano-Turanian region. Taxon 60: 1029–1040.
Jabbour F., Renner S.S. 2012a. A phylogeny of Delphinieae (Ranunculaceae) shows that Aconitum is nested within Delphinium and that Late Miocene transitions to long life cycles in the Himalayas and Southwest China coincide with bursts in diversification. Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 62: 928–942.
Jabbour F., Renner S.S. 2012b. Spurs in a spur: Perianth evolution in the Delphinieae (Ranunculaceae). Int. J. Plant Sci. 173 (9): 1036–1054.
Kosuge K., Tamura M. 1988. Morphology of the petal in Aconitum. Bot. Mag. Tokyo 101: 223–237.
Kosuge K., Tamura M. 1989. Ontogenetic studies on petals of the Ranunculaceae. J. Jap. Bot. 64: 65–74.
Kramer E.M., Irish V.F. 2000. Evolution of the petal and stamen developmental programs: Evidence from comparative studies of the basal angiosperms. Int. J. Plant Sci. 161(suppl. 6): 29–40.
Leinfellner W. 1959. Über die röhrenförmige Nektarschuppe an den Nektarblättern verschiedener Ranunculus- und Batrachium-Arten. Österr. Bot. Z. 106: 88–103.
Novikoff A.V. 2009a. Anatomical and morphological organization of the flower of Aconitum degenii Gayer (Ranunculaceae). Proc. of the V Internat. Sci. Conf. of Stud. and PhD Stud. (Lviv, 12-15 May 2009): 22–23. (In Ukrainian)
Novikoff A.V. 2009b. Comparative anatomy and morphology of the flowers of Aconitum bucovinense Zapał. and Aconitum ×gayeri Starmühl. (Ranunculaceae). Proc. of the II Internat. Sci.-Practic. Conf. (Gomel, 24-25 September 2009): 60–64. (In Russian)
Novikoff A.V. 2010. Morphological and anatomical organization of overground spear of monkshoods (Ranunculaceae) from Eastern Carpathians. Proc. State Nat. Hist. Museum NAS Ukraine 26: 137–164. (In Ukrainian)
Novikoff A.V. 2013. Vascular anatomy of the flower of rare Eastern Carpathian endemic Aconitum lasiocarpum (Rchb.) Gáyer subsp. lasiocarpum. Acta Biol. Crac. Ser. Bot. 55 (suppl. 1): 60.
Novikoff A.V. 2014. Morphology and vascular anatomy of the flower of Aconitum lasiocarpum (Rchb.) Gáyer subsp. lasiocarpum (Ranunculaceae Juss.). Studia Biologica 8: In print.
Payer J.-B. 1857. Traité d’organogénie comparée de la fleur. Section des nigelles – Delphinium, Aconitum: 251. Masson, Paris.
Rasmussen D.A., Kramer E.M., Zimmer E.A. 2009. One size fits all? Molecular evidence for a commonly inherited petal identity program in the Ranunculales. Am. J. Bot. 96: 96–109.
Ronse De Craene L.P., Smets E.F. 1995. Evolution of the androeeium in the Ranunculiflorae. In: Jensen U., Kadereit J.W. (eds), Systematics and evolution of the Ranunculiflorae. Pl. Syst. Evol. 9 (suppl.): 63–70.
Salisbury E. 1973. The organization of the ranunculaceous flower with especial regard to the correlated variations of its constituent members. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B. 183: 205–225.
Smith J.H. 1926. Vascular anatomy of ranalian flowers. I. Ranunculaceae. Bot. Gaz. 82 (1): 1–29.
Trifonova V.I. 1990. Comparative biomorphological study of the taxonomy and phylogeny of the genera Consolida (DC.) S.F. Gray and Aconitella Spach. Collect. Bot. (Barcelona) 19: 97–110.
Wang W., Liu Y., Yu S.X., Gao T.G., Chen Z.D. 2013. Gymnaconitum, a new genus of Ranunculaceae endemic to the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Taxon 64: 713–722.
Worsdell W.C. 1903. The origin of the perianth of flowers with special reference to the Ranunculaceae. New Phytol. 2: 42–48.
Worsdell W.C. 1908. A study of the vascular system in certain orders of the Ranales. Ann. Bot. 22 (4): 651–682.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The journal is licensed by Creative Commons under BY-NC-ND license. You are welcome and free to share (copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format) all the published materials. You may not use the material for commercial purposes. You must give appropriate credit to all published materials.
The journal allow the author(s) to hold the copyrights and to retain publishing rights without any restrictions. This is also indicated at the bottom of each article.
