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Inflorescence and floral development in Ranunculus and three allied genera in Ranunculeae (Ranunculoideae, Ranunculaceae)

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Abstract

The development of inflorescences and flowers of three species of Ranunculus and three allied genera (Ceratocephala, Halerpestes, and Oxygraphis) (Ranunculeae, Ranunculaceae) was studied comparatively using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Our results showed that both the inflorescence branching patterns and the floral morphogenesis in Ranunculeae are extremely labile. Inflorescences range from a thyrsoid to a solitary flower, with intermediate branching patterns in which sometimes only the terminal flower of the inflorescence main axis fully develops, such as in Ceratocephala and Halerpestes. Only in Oxygraphis is the flower truly solitary. In all species, sepal primordia are broad, crescent-shaped, and truncate, and the primordia of petals, stamens, and carpels are rather small and hemispherical, and very similar to each other. The plastochron between the last sepal and the first petal is relatively long. At the onset of androecium or gynoecium development, the regular spiral pattern of the perianth may become irregular in Ceratocephala and Oxygraphis, whereas spiral and whorled patterns may co-occur in Ranunculus and Halerpestes. The development of the petals is delayed with regard to that of the other floral organs in all species studied here, except for Oxygraphis. Our study confirms that, for solitary flowers, increased number of petals and the shape of the ventral nectary may have evolved independently many times, as suggested by earlier molecular phylogenetic studies and ancestral character reconstructions. With respect to the remainder of the tribe, Oxygraphis displays several autapomorphies, such as nondelayed development and increased number of petals, which will be of interest for comparative molecular developmental studies.

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Acknowledgments

We sincerely thank Dr. Dun-yan Tan, Xinjiang Agriculture University, China, for collecting valuable material and taking the picture of the anthetic flower of Ceratocephala orthoceras; Dr. Quan-ru Liu, Beijing Normal University, China, for assistance in field collection of Ranunculus bungei; Dr. Jeremy Lundholm, Saint Mary’s University, Canada, and Dr. Xin-wei Li, Wuhan Botanical Garden, China, for critically reading the earlier versions of the manuscript. We also sincerely thank Dr. Robert L. Baker, University of Colorado at Boulder, USA, for editing the English, and Dr. Peter K. Endress and an anonymous reviewer for their helpful comments on the manuscript. This project was supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (Nos. 30370095, 31170215, and 31100141) and Doctoral Foundation of Northwest A & F University (No. Z109021118).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Life Sciences, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an, 710062, China

    Liang Zhao, Xian-hua Tian & Yi Ren

  2. College of Life Sciences, Northwest A and F University, Yangling, 712100, China

    Liang Zhao

  3. Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA

    Julien B. Bachelier

  4. Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, 1300 Centre Street, Boston, MA, 02131, USA

    Julien B. Bachelier

  5. School of Life Sciences, Northwest University, Xi’an, 710069, China

    Hong-li Chang

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Zhao, L., Bachelier, J.B., Chang, Hl. et al. Inflorescence and floral development in Ranunculus and three allied genera in Ranunculeae (Ranunculoideae, Ranunculaceae). Plant Syst Evol 298, 1057–1071 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-012-0616-6

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