Abstract
AbstractThe modern analysis of flowers and flowering rests on description and interpretation of plant form. Chief among these is Goethe's foliar theory, which proposes that all aerial plant organs are analogous to a single organ. The foliar theory has underpinned all work on flower development, including modern molecular genetic analyses, as well as providing a frame of reference for evolutionary studies. This chapter describes Goethe's theory with reference to the flower, and its use and expansion by 20th-century botanists. An analysis of the differences and similarities between vegetative and floral organs is presented, which provides a framework for a section that interprets the foliar theory in an evolutionary context. The second half of the chapter moves on to consider historical interpretations of the transition from the vegetative state to the flowering state, describing the mechanisms proposed by early plant physiologists to explain this transition.
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