Floral Diagrams

Louis P. Ronse De Craene is a botanist at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, and the Director of the MSc course in the Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants jointly organised with the University of Edinburgh. He has published more than 130 peer-reviewed papers and edited four books, and his main research interests are centred on floral morphology, the evolution of flowers and the use of floral characters in plant phylogeny. He has developed an internationally acclaimed expertise in floral structural morphology encompassing a broad range of angiosperm families.

• Preface; Acknowledgements; Part I. Introduction to Floral Diagrams: 1. Introduction to flower morphology; 2. The significance of floral diagrams; 3. Floral diagrams used in this book; Part II. Floral Diagrams in the Major Clades: 4. Systematic significance of floral diagrams; 5. Basal Angiosperms: the ascent of flowers; 6. Monocots: variation on a trimerous Bauplan; 7. Early diverging eudicots: a transition between two flower types; 8. Basal Pentapetalae: the event of pentamerous flowers; 9. Rosids: the diplostemonous alliance; 10. Caryophyllids: how to reinvent lost petals; 11. Asterids: tubes and pseudanthia; Part III. Conclusions: 12. Distinctive systematic characters and apomorphic tendencies; 13. Floral diagrams and major Angiosperm groups; 14. Outlook; References; Glossary.