ABSTRACT

Plants exhibit forms of asymmetry analogous to "handedness" in bilaterally symmetrical animals. This book explores the evolutionary significance and development of asymmetry. Examples of genetic control include the direction of tendril or stem coiling of many climbing plants; the so-called spiral phyllotaxy and floral taxy; and contorted petal arrangement is another kind of left- right symmetry in plants; the direction of contortion is fixed in some but not in other plants. The book will underscore tha all phenomena related to handedness start during embryogenesis itself, with the occurrence of embryo rotation.

 

Key selling features:

  • First consolidated book on Plant Handedness
  • Relates handedness, asymmetry and chirality to the evolution of different organizational levels in plant biology
  • Emphasizes handedness as a vital governing force in plant functional evolution
  • Provides a new perspective, hitherto ignored, into plant developemtn and evolution
  • Describes how an age-old phenomenon can give scope for investigation from a very modern interdisciplinary approach

chapter 14|26 pages

Fibonacci Sequence

A General Account

chapter 15|21 pages

Sunflower Spirals

chapter 17|21 pages

Floral Symmetry

chapter 19|17 pages

Stylar Polymorphisms in Flowering Plants

An Overview

chapter 21|4 pages

Inversostyly

A Still Less Known Reproductive Mechanism