Structure of the Angiosperm Inflorescence Apex

Abstract

ALTHOUGH there is a considerable amount of information available concerning the structure of the angiosperm shoot apex, relatively little research has been carried out into the anatomical construction of the inflorescence apex. Grégoire's theory of the histological differences between vegetative and reproductive apices is well known to the student of developmental anatomy. He was unable to find tunica and corpus zones in the reproductive apices he examined. However, this observation has been challenged by recent workers, and these zones are now recognized in both types of growing-point. Few attempts have been made to interpret reproductive apices in the light of the cyto-histological zonation now generally recognized to be present in the vegetative apex¹. Philipson² and Popham and Chan³ have investigated the zonal changes that take place in the apex in the transition from the vegetative to the reproductive state in a number of dicotyledonous plants. It is claimed that, although central initiation, flank meristem and file meristem zones can be identified in the early inflorescence primordium, the central initiation zone later disappears and is replaced by flank meristem.