Development of the female flower and gynecandrous partial inflorescence of Myrica californica

Abstract

Organogenesis of the female flower and gynecandrous partial inflorescence is described. Approximately 25 first-order inflorescence bracts are formed in an acropetal sequence. A second-order inflorescence axis, the partial inflorescence, develops in the axil of each bract. Third-, fourth-, and fifth-order axes arise in the axils of second-, third-, and fourth-order bracts. A gynoecium terminates a second-order axis and sometimes a distal third-order axis. A gynoecium consists of two stigmas and one basal, unitegmic, orthotropous ovule. The wall enclosing the ovule, the circumlocular wall, is comprised distally of gynoecial tissue and proximally of tissue of the inflorescence axis and its appendages. The latter portion of the wall is formed by zonal growth. Androecial members, formed proximal to the gynoecium on the partial inflorescence, are carried onto the circumlocular wall by zonal growth. A stamen may develop from the last-formed primordium before gynoecial inception or from a potentially stigmatic primordium. The papillae of the flower and fruit arise as emergences and from potentially bracteate, axial, and staminate primorida during the development of the circumlocular wall. The term circumlocular wall is used in a neutral sense to describe this unique structure. Since the gynoecium is composed of gynoecial appendages and inflorescence axis and appendages, a functional definition of gynoecium must be expanded to include any tissue, including an inflorescence, that surrounds the ovule(s) and forms the fruit(s).