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Plant Biology

University of Richmond

Plant biology

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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

There's Much Left To Learn: Clethra's Chromosomes, W. John Hayden Oct 2015

There's Much Left To Learn: Clethra's Chromosomes, W. John Hayden

Biology Faculty Publications

Many would argue that chromosomes, genes, and DNA form the ineluctable essence of modern biology. Not only do these fundamental components of living cells provide moment-to-moment instructions by which cells carry out basic life processes, they also control inheritance of characteristics from one generation to the next. These essential functions of DNA stem from its repetitive structure. Hugely long DNA molecules are built from just four components, referenced by their singleletter abbreviations, A, C, G, and T. It is the specific sequence of these As, Cs, Gs, and Ts that constitutes the coded information of DNA. Moreover, molecular biologists have …


Partridge Berry: Simple Beauty Belies Complexity, W. John Hayden Mar 2012

Partridge Berry: Simple Beauty Belies Complexity, W. John Hayden

Biology Faculty Publications

Superficially, plants seem so simple. Rooted in place, they do not move around. And while plant growth is a dynamic process, without time-lapse photography, growth events are so imperceptibly slow that, to us impatient humans, plants seem both immobile and static. Nevertheless, there is a lot going on inside the plant body, and this is especially true for the events of reproduction that play out inside flowers and fruits. As one of my students recently commented, “I used to think it was just a matter of pollen plus stigma and, presto-change-o, seeds happen.” That student, I hope, learned otherwise, as …


Amanoa, W. John Hayden Jan 1999

Amanoa, W. John Hayden

Biology Faculty Publications

Monoecious or dioecious trees or shrubs, latex absent. Leaves alternate, distichous, evergreen, simple, coriaceous, glabrous; stipules intrapetiolar, paired, or confluent across the leaf axil; margins entire; venation pinnate. Inflorescence axillary and/or terminal, of densely bracteate clusters (reduced cymules), in the axils of ordinary foliage leaves, in nonleafy pseudoterminal aggregates that revert to vegetative growth, or (in neotropical species) in the axils of alternate, reduced, crescentiform stipular bracts of determinate deciduous spiciform axes borne in groups of 1-several per branch apex; axes straight or sinuous; floral bracts minute, deltate, with abaxially pubescent midribs. Staminate flowers sessile or pedicellate, regular; perianth biseriate; …


Seedling Development In Species Of Chamaesyce (Euphorbiaceae) With Erect Growth Habits, W. John Hayden, Olga Troyanskaya Jan 1998

Seedling Development In Species Of Chamaesyce (Euphorbiaceae) With Erect Growth Habits, W. John Hayden, Olga Troyanskaya

Biology Faculty Publications

Seedling development is described for Chamaesyce hirta, C. hypericifolia, and C. mesembrianthemifolia as discerned by light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Although these species ultimately develop erect to ascending growth habits, epicotyl development is limited to the production of a single pair ofleaves located immediately superjacent to and decussate with the cotyledons. The shoot system develops from one or more buds located in the axils of the cotyledons. In all respects, seedling ontogeny is very similar to that of previously studied prostrate species of Chamaesyce. Evidence from seedling ontogeny thus contradicts a hypothesis concerning homologies of plant …


Revision Of The Cerrado Hemicryptophytic Chamaesyce Of Boissier's "Pleiadeniae" (Euphorbiaceae), Mark P. Simmons, W. John Hayden Apr 1997

Revision Of The Cerrado Hemicryptophytic Chamaesyce Of Boissier's "Pleiadeniae" (Euphorbiaceae), Mark P. Simmons, W. John Hayden

Biology Faculty Publications

The species of Chamaesyce classified by Boissier as the "Pleiadeniae'" are revised in light of presently available collections. Six species are accepted and new combinations are proposed for C. nana, C. setosa, C. tamanduana, and C. viscoides. Although these herbaceous perennials of cerrado vegetation of Brazil, northern Argentina, and adjacent countries are distinctive ecologically and geographically, cladistic analysis does not support their recognition as a monophyletic group.


Notes On Neotropical Amanoa (Euphorbiaceae), W. John Hayden Oct 1990

Notes On Neotropical Amanoa (Euphorbiaceae), W. John Hayden

Biology Faculty Publications

Lectotypes are designated for Amanoa caribaea Krug & Urban and A. guianensis Aublet; presumed syntypes of the latter taxon are shown to be heterogeneous by inclusion of a previously unrecognized species. Four new species of Amanoa are described: A. congesta from French Guiana and northeastern Brazil; A. gracillima from Manaus, Brazil; A. nanayensis from Amazonian Peru and adjacent Colombia and Brazil; and A. neglecta from French Guiana and Surinam. Amanoa sinuosa is proposed as a new name for the later homonym A. robusta Leal. A key to the 13 neotropical species is presented.


Methyl Salicylate Secretory Cells In Roots Of Viola Arvensis And V. Rafinesquii (Violaceae), W. John Hayden, John Clough Mar 1990

Methyl Salicylate Secretory Cells In Roots Of Viola Arvensis And V. Rafinesquii (Violaceae), W. John Hayden, John Clough

Biology Faculty Publications

The aromatic roots of Viola arvensis and V. rafinesquii were studied in order to determine the chemical nature and anatomical localization of their volatile compounds. Gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy revealed a single detectable volatile compound, methyl salicylate. Light microscopy and differential staining with Sudan III indicates the source of this compound to be enlarged secretory cells located in the endodermis, an unusual position for such cells in roots of angiosperms. The secretory endodermal cells are sporadic, but are more frequent in primary roots than in secondary roots and the lower portion of the hypocotyl. It is hypothesized that …


Ontogeny Of The Cotyledonary Region Of Chamaesyce Maculata (Euphorbiaceae), W. John Hayden Nov 1988

Ontogeny Of The Cotyledonary Region Of Chamaesyce Maculata (Euphorbiaceae), W. John Hayden

Biology Faculty Publications

Development of the cotyledonary region in Chamaesyce maculata is described from germination of the seed through formation of the dense mat of branches which characterize this common weed. The cotyledonary node is trilacunar with split-lateral traces. Epicotyl development is limited to a pair ofleaves ("V-leaves") inserted directly above and decussate to the cotyledons. The two V-leaves are also vascularized by three traces and insertion of these traces relative to the vasculature at the immediately subjacent cotyledonary node is asymmetrical; four of the six V-leaf traces arise on one side of the intercotyledonary plane and two arise on the opposite side. …


The Identity Of The Genus Neowawraea (Euphorbiaceae), W. John Hayden Apr 1987

The Identity Of The Genus Neowawraea (Euphorbiaceae), W. John Hayden

Biology Faculty Publications

On the basis of newly acquired morphological evidence gathered in the course of floristic studies, the monotypic genus Neowawraea Rock is now recognized as a species of Flueggea Willd. and is renamed F. neowawraea W. J. Hayden. Taxonomic documentation presented for F. neowawraea includes an expanded morphological description, a map showing its widely scattered distribution in the Hawaiian Islands to which the species is endemic, and discussions of type specimens, common names, and its extreme rarity. The combination of flowers in pedicellate axillary clusters, the lobed staminate disk, pistillode, extrorse anthers, hemitropous ovules, and, especially, the smoothish dry seeds with …


Anatomy And Affinities Of Penthorum, Melanie Lynn Haskins, W. John Hayden Feb 1987

Anatomy And Affinities Of Penthorum, Melanie Lynn Haskins, W. John Hayden

Biology Faculty Publications

The genus Penthorum L. consists of two species of perennial herbs, P. sedoides of eastern North America and P. chinense of eastern Asia. Penthorum has long been considered intermediate between Crassulaceae and Saxifragaceae. An anatomical study of both species was undertaken to contribute to a better understanding of the relationships of these plants. Prominent anatomical features of Penthorum include: an aerenchymatous cortex and closely-spaced collateral vascular bundles of stems; one-trace unilacunar nodes; brochidodromous venation, rosoid teeth bearing hydathodes, and anomocytic stomata of leaves; angular vessel elements with many-barred scalariform perforation plates and alternate to scattered intervascular pits; thin-walled nonseptate fiber-tracheids; …


Comparative Anatomy And Systematics Of Picrodendron, Genus Incertae Sedis, W. John Hayden Jan 1977

Comparative Anatomy And Systematics Of Picrodendron, Genus Incertae Sedis, W. John Hayden

Biology Faculty Publications

This study of the vegetative anatomy of Picrodendron and some of its putative relatives has been undertaken in order better to understand its natural relationships. Despite the number of anatomical studies in the literature (Jadin, 1901; Solereder, 1908; Boas, 1913; Webber, 1936; Heimsch, 1942; Record & Hess, 1943; Metcalfe & Chalk, 1950), our information on the anatomy of Picrodendron is still incomplete· for example, nodal and petiolar anatomy has apparently never been described. Furthermore, with the exception of Record and Hess (1943), who discussed Picrodendron in a family by itself, other anatomists have compared Picrodendron only with members of Simaroubaceae, …