The embryology of angiosperms: Its broad application to the systematic and evolutionary study

Abstract

Embryology allows one to work with a wide array of characters (more than 50 in general) for each taxon of angiosperms. This paper, while providing a brief review of recent studies on Myrtales and associated families by me and my co-workers, discusses evidence for the general utility of embryological characters for the study of plant systematics. In particular, evidence is given that characters of seed coat anatomy may be best applied to the study of specific and sectional (and even familial) relationships, those of seed appendages as well as of integumentary morphology and histogenesis to the study of generic relationships, and other major characters to the study of familial relationships. Embryology thus provides many features that are complex and, when properly applied along with evidence from other sources, offers good indications of relationships at various taxonomic level, from the ordinal to the specific level. Despite its evident systematic value and increasing need, however, information on embryological characters is still lacking for a majority of genera, and even at the family level, data is lacking or insufficiently available for more than 30% of families.