Everything about Amborella totally explained
Amborella trichopoda is a rare, vesselless, understory
shrub or small
tree found only on the island of
New Caledonia. It is of great interest in plant systematics because modern molecular systematics data place it at or near the base of the
flowering plants. That is, it represents a line of flowering plants that very early on diverged (about 130 million years ago) from all the other extant species of flowering plants. Comparing characteristics of this extant basal angiosperm, more derived flowering plants, and the fossil flowering plants may give us some idea of the characteristics of early flowering plants and how they've evolved, or changed through time.
Amborella trichopoda is a sprawling shrub or small tree with two-ranked leaves without stipules. The
leaves are alternately arranged,
evergreen, simple, with serrated and rippled margins, and about 8–10 cm long. The plant is
dioecious: each flower produces both
stamens and
carpels, but only one sex develops fully and is fertile in the flowers of an individual plant, the structures of the other sex remaining undeveloped. The small
flowers, 4–8 mm across, are in terminal cymose inflorescences or clusters, each flower with a perianth of undifferentiated
tepals arranged in a spiral, rather than in the whorls of more derived flowers. The
fruit is a red berry containing a single
seed, 5–8 mm long.
Individuals of this species in the wild are being reduced by
overgrazing and
habitat destruction.
Further Information
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