Axillary buds seem to be basically universal among flowering plants - is that actually the case? Can we assume that every angiosperm has a bud at every leaf axil? Are there particular species or groups which don't? Do non-angiosperm vascular plants have axillary buds?
When I tried to look this up, I just got information about what axillary buds are, but not about which plants or groups do (or don't) have them. Is that just because they're completely universal? Or have I just not found the right source that specifies which plants do and don't have them?
Hi, I'm a biology teacher and in two weeks I am going to have a lesson about rainforests. My students have not learned what angiosperms are, so I was going to make a very basic cladogram of ferns, gymnosperms, and angiosperms. However, my background is zoology so I am a bit hazy on the details.
Obviously, the big shared, derived trait that angiosperms have are flowers and fruits. However, I think if I asked my high schoolers "Can you think of any plants that don't have fruits?" they would point to grass. :/ But everybody knows that pine trees are evergreen, so I thought I would go in that route.
My question is, did the ability to lose one's leaves evolve BEFORE or AFTER the last common ancestor of pine trees and maple trees? Also, if it evolved AFTER, is it an ancestral trait among angiosperms or is it derived (so some lineages never evolved it)?
What is the soft consensus (if any) on how stable the APG IV is now? I realise that some changes may have reached consensus since so there will be updates, but in broad strokes?
Itβs mind-blowing to me how half of even the Cronquist system (before genetic analysis was as possible as now) at order level may as well have been the result of chucking any APG into a randomiser. The families are completely scrambled within Eudicots, and the magnoliids were included, split up, reunified outsideβ¦
But it seems the jumps have been more stable since and APG III to IV had far fewer drastic alterations than II to III, etc.
Do botanists generally expect that itβs mostly stabilised now that molecular techniques are more advanced, or are there likely still drastic changes to be made? And if so, which major clades are particularly uncertain?
Grasslands represent 20-40% of the Earth's land surface and basically all plant species you encounter in a grassland are angiosperms. The only living grasslike vascular plants I know of that aren't angiosperms are Equisetum which are mostly found in marshy areas. Prior to the evolution of angiosperm grasses what plant communities (if any) would be found growing in land areas subject to seasonal drought?
Iβve been learning a lot about identifying flowers, trees, ferns, grasses etc with a large key for my state. I am wondering if any of you have tips for identifying plants that are angiosperms but are too young to be flowering yet? I assume the best way is just to be exposed to them but hoping some of you all have helpful tricks!
What do you prefer?
These colors being...
- Grey
- White
- Black
- Pink
- Magenta
- Cyan
- Blue
