Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Development in the vascular plants
- 2 Embryogenesis: beginnings of development
- 3 Analytical and experimental studies of embryo development
- 4 The structure of the shoot apex
- 5 Analytical studies of the shoot apex
- 6 Experimental investigations on the shoot apex
- 7 Organogenesis in the shoot: leaf origin and position
- 8 Organogenesis in the shoot: determination of leaves and branches
- 9 Organogenesis in the shoot: later stages of leaf development
- 10 Determinate shoots: thorns and flowers
- 11 The development of the shoot system
- 12 The root
- 13 Differentiation of the plant body: the origin of pattern
- 14 Differentiation of the plant body: the elaboration of pattern
- 15 Secondary growth: the vascular cambium
- 16 Secondary growth: experimental studies on the cambium
- 17 Alternative patterns of development
- Credits
- Author index
- Subject index
9 - Organogenesis in the shoot: later stages of leaf development
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Development in the vascular plants
- 2 Embryogenesis: beginnings of development
- 3 Analytical and experimental studies of embryo development
- 4 The structure of the shoot apex
- 5 Analytical studies of the shoot apex
- 6 Experimental investigations on the shoot apex
- 7 Organogenesis in the shoot: leaf origin and position
- 8 Organogenesis in the shoot: determination of leaves and branches
- 9 Organogenesis in the shoot: later stages of leaf development
- 10 Determinate shoots: thorns and flowers
- 11 The development of the shoot system
- 12 The root
- 13 Differentiation of the plant body: the origin of pattern
- 14 Differentiation of the plant body: the elaboration of pattern
- 15 Secondary growth: the vascular cambium
- 16 Secondary growth: experimental studies on the cambium
- 17 Alternative patterns of development
- Credits
- Author index
- Subject index
Summary
The stages of leaf development discussed in the two previous chapters – the primordial stages, which culminate in a simple outgrowth at the margin of the shoot meristem, somewhat flattened on its adaxial face – give little indication of the diverse morphology of the mature leaves of various groups of vascular plants. The multipinnate frond of a fern, the needle leaves of many conifers, and the diverse simple and compound leaves of the angiosperms are remarkably similar in the period immediately following their inception. Thus, the diversity of leaf form can be interpreted best through an understanding of the later, as opposed to primordial, stages of development. On the other hand the evidence here cited indicates that in the primordial stages the leaf undergoes a determination that confers upon it a considerable degree of autonomy in its later development. Does this imply that all of the diverse morphology of leaves must be thought of as originating in a process of determination at a relatively undifferentiated stage? The answer to this question is not an easy one, and the issues involved may best be exposed by examining some of the events of later leaf development and some of the experiments that have sought to interpret them.
DEVELOPMENT OF FERN LEAVES
There is a substantial body of information about later stages of leaf development in ferns, much of it collected from species that have also been used for experimental analysis, so that descriptive and experimental data may be correlated.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Patterns in Plant Development , pp. 147 - 175Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1989
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