Floral development of Zannichellia palustris

Abstract

What, at maturity, appears to be a bisexual flower in the axil of one of two subopposite leaves, is revealed as a fertile nodal complex with quite different organization. Three appendages develop at each nodal complex. The first girdles the stem and becomes at maturity a membranous sheath about the entire node. The second subtends the axillary meristem, which terminates as the staminate flower, and branches laterally as a renewal growth in the axil of a sterile appendage just below the stamen. The third appendage is subopposite the terminal meristem, which gives rise to the pistillate floral bud towards the staminate flower, and a renewal growth apex towards the appendage. This renewal growth apex repeats the entire pattern at almost a 90° shift to the right or left, depending on the shoot. The single stamen of the staminate flower develops as those studied in Potamogeton and Ruppia. The pistillate flower develops two carpel primordia, which become peltate before initiating a single ovule primordium on the adaxial portion (Querzone). The membranous envelope which covers the carpels at maturity is initiated at ovule inception, below one of the carpels. A peltate stigma differentiates on a short style and at maturity becomes broad and lobed. The renewal growth apex has a one-layered tunica. The membranous sheaths of the node and of the pistillate flower are primarily protodermal in origin, while the rest of the sterile and reproductive appendages arise through activity in subprotodermal cells. Procambial development is acropetal closely following primordial inception. Each organ (sterile or fertile) receives one procambial strand, except for the membranous sheath about the node and the one about the pistillate flower.