The Evolution of Plant Form: A Summary Perspective

The study of the evolution of development (evo-devo) has advanced dramatically in the last two decades. Although there had been a strong interest in evo-devo for nearly a century it was only with the advent of molecular developmental genetics that provided a strong basis for a conceptual and methodological integration of developmental studies with evolutionary biology. The study of plant evolution of development has also progressed in the last two decades beginning with the study of the molecular basis for floral diversification in the angiosperms. The confluence of studies in development, molecular genetics, phylogenetics, pale-obotany population genetics, and molecular evolution in the study of plant form is now a robust discipline, with various opportunities to further our understanding of plant morphological evolution at all levels of biological organization.