A compound leaf and scattered wing nuts of Polyptera manningii Manchester et Dilcher (extinct Juglandaceae) in siltstone from the paleocene of southwestern Wyoming. Width of the specimen is 15 cm.

The yellow, fourmerous, tubular flowers of Kalanchoe marmorata from Central East Africa illustrate two aspects of convergent evolution in Crassulaceae: sympetaly and variation in number of floral parts (either a reduction or increase).

A flowering head of Cirsium pupuratum and a nectar-foraging bumble bee, Bombu honshuensis.

A sample of the diversity of tubers oca, Oxalis tuberosa Molina, from the germplasm bank of PROINPA (Programa de la Investigacion de la Papa), Cochabamba, Bolivia.

The Oak galls of the wasp Adleria weldi occur on one year-old acorns. Young, green galls secrete honeydew, but at maturity galls turn brown and drop from their host. Shown here on Quercus myrtifolia, this wasp also attacks Q. laurifolia in the southeastern United States. This species is incorrectly placed in Adleria and should be moved to the genus Andricus.

Araucaria humboldtensis (Araucariaceae) on the southern slope of Mt. Humboldt, New Caledonia. New Caledonia possesses 13 endemics of Araucaria, and they form a monophyletic group with very low differentiation in rbcL sequences.

Lady's slippers from a disjunt population of the rare Cypripedium kentuckiense in Eastern Virginia.

Fruiting capsule of a Pachira species from Estado Amazonas, Venezuela, which has been opened to show its large, floatable seeds. The seeds of other species in this genus of tropical trees are smaller and surrounded by dense, non-wettable hairs. Pachira is a member of the traditional family Bombacaceae, which like the Sterculiaceae and Tiliaceae has been found to be non-monophyletic.

Flowers of Wisteria floribunda, a well-known ornamental plant from East Asia. Wisteria has been placed in the predominantly tropical tribe Millettieae by its morphological similarities. However, molecular evidence suggests that Wisteria and a tropical genus Callerya are closer to many temperate herbaceous legumes but not to other Millettieae members.

Flower of Nasa urensfrom the genus Nasa (Loasaceae), a taxon that contains only iridoids that are widespread in the family.

Cauliflorous figs of Ficus itoana from Madang, Papua, New Guinea. This species is functionally dioecious due to the interaction of the pollinating fig wasp Ceratosolen armipes,with two types of figs on separate plants. Functionally dioecious figs in subgenus Ficus have been found to be nonmonophyletic.

A flower of Tibouchina semidecandra, a well-known ornamental from southeastern Brazil. Tibouchinais a member of the large tropical family Melastomataceae and together with other Melastomeae has been regarded as representing a relatively basal element of the family. Molecular evidence suggests that Tibouchina, Melastoma, Osbeckia, and other Melastomeae represent a derived clade of Melastomataceae that only recently reached Africa and tropical Asia.

The magnificent blossoms of magnolias have been highly prized in landscaping for centuries. Molecular analysis of the magnolia family provides new evidence for phylogenetic relationships previously undetected by systematists. From top left: Michelia champaca; Mich. figo; Mich. maudiae; Magnolia biondii; Mag. zenii; Mag. kobus; Mag. stellata; Mag. campbellii; Mag. sprengeri; Mag. denudata; Mag. cylindrica; Mag. salicifolia; Mag. lilliflora; Mag. acuminata; Manglietia moto; Mang. insignis; Mag. grandiflora; Mag. sharpii; Mag. virginiana; Mag. henryi; Mag. delavayi; Mag. coco; Mag. sieboldii; Mag. wilsonii; Mag. obovata; Mag. officinalis; Mag. tripetala; Mag. splendens; Mag. fraseri; Kmeria septentrionalis; Mag. macrophylla; Liriodendron tulipifera. Photo credit: Sangtae Kim, Richard Figlar, Dorothy Callaway, Munyong Chong, Kihun Song, Holly Forbes, Kenneth Durio, and Junghee Lee. Design: Sangtae Kim.

A watercolor reproduction of Plate 27, Trichomanes crispum, originally drawn by Walter Fitch for Hooker, W. J. 1862. Garden ferns. Lovell, Reeve & Co., London, UK.

Lemon-scented sun orchid, Thelymitra antennifera. Members of Thelymitrinae rely on deceit to attract pollinators. This species blooms at the same time as a similar lilioid flower that offers a reward. The generalized floral morphology seen in Thelymitra probably represents the plesiomorphic state for Diurideae, but members of the subtribe often have highly modified columns adorned with brush-like appendages to assist in pollen presentation, a simple form of which can be seen in this species.

Floral diversity in the blueberries (Vaccinieae, Ericaceae). Top row from left: Paphia meiniana, Queensland, Australia (photo: K. A. Kron); Vaccinium corymbosum, eastern United States (photo: K. A. Kron); Macleania stricta, Ecuador (photo: J. L. Luteyn). Second row from left: Satyria warszewiczii, Panama (photo: E. A. Powell), upper

Inocybe hirsuta var. maxima A. H. Smith (SAT 01-279-08) photographed in the Hoh River Valley in Olympic National Park, Washington, USA. This variety is common in Washington under western hemlock and is also known from eastern North America under eastern hemlock.

The giant rosette Espeletia hartwegiana growing in paramo of the central cordillera of Colombia.

The bull banksia (Banksia grandis) of southwestern Australia. New molecular data suggest that a clade of erect and prostrate shrub banksias with tough, serrate leaves is more closely related to the co-occurring genus Dryandra than to this and other species of tree banksias.

<IT>Mabelia connatifila</IT>, one of the triurid taxa represented by exquisitely preserved flowers found in the Cretaceous Raritan Formation of New Jersey. <IT>Mabelia</IT> is portrayed in a reconstructed habitat of leaf litter that includes remains of the fern <IT>Boodlepteris</IT>, hamamelids, and conifers (<IT>Brachyphyllum</IT>).

A snap trap of the Venus's flytrap, <IT>Dionaea muscipula</IT> Ellis ex L. (Droseraceae), native in North America forms a sister group with widely distributed aquatic snap trap species Aldrovanda vesiculosa L.

<IT>Monophyllaea horsfieldii</IT> R.Br., cultivated at the Botanical Garden Vienna (HBV), grown from seeds collected by Dr. Kwiton Jong at Batu Caves, Selangor, West Malaysia. The plant represents a giant seedling, with the stem corresponding to the hypocotyl and the single leaf to an enormously enlarged cotyledon. As flowers and fruits are produced in the seedling stage, <IT>Monophyllaea</IT> provides a perfect example of neoteny in the plant kingdom. The genus belongs to the morphologically and biogeographically noteworthy tribe Epithemateae of Gesneriaceae.

Asplenium aureum Cav. photographed in a remnant of laurel forest in the Barranco del Laurel, Gran Canaria. This species is endemic to the Canary Islands and is the largest within subgenus Ceterach.Molecular data suggest the polyphyly of subgenus Ceterach(Willd.) Bir et al., implicating homoplasy in the lamina shape and the dense scale cover, characters previously used to circumscribe this group.

A phylogeny of angiosperms based on matK, a plastid gene nested within the trnK intron. Illustrations are superimposed on photographs of representative taxa from major angiosperm lineages, with Amborella shown in the center. We thank Peter K. Endress for providing photographs of Chloranthus and Ceratophyllum, Porter P. Lowry II for Amborella, and Duncan M. Porter for Tiarella (Saxifragaceae).

Staminate inflorescences of Arceuthobium pusillum (eastern dwarf mistletoe, Viscaceae) emerging from the branch of its black spruce host (Picea mariana, host needles ca. 1.0 cm long). Among all the mistletoes, Arceuthobium has the greatest economic impact on human activity because of the damage these parasites inflict on commercially important forest trees. Whereas traditional classification of these plants has proven difficult owing to extreme reduction and lost of morphological features, molecular characters have yielded a well-resolved phylogeny.

Jubelina rosea (Malpighiaceae) from French Guiana. Malpighiaceae have been difficult to place phylogenetically owing in part to their highly specialized floral morphology, a likely adaptation to their association with oil-bee pollinators.

Lichen-forming fungus Peltigera praetextata (Sommerf.) Zopf growing on mosses in northern Poland. The thallus of this common bipartite lichen contains the cyanobacterium Nostoc, which is frequently present, sometimes in addition to a green algal photobiont, in tripartite peltigeralean lichens. Small squamules (phyllidia) on the thallus surface are asexual propagules containing both symbionts (fungus and Nostoc). Pale brown, saddle-shaped fruit bodies (apothecia) contain sexual propagules (ascospores) of the mycobiont. A new classification for peltigeralean lichens is established here based on a comprehensive molecular phylogenetic study.

A Sparkling Violetear Hummingbird (Colibri coruscans) visiting flowers of Fuchsia ampliata near Yanacocha, on the slopes of Volcan Pichincha close to Quito, Ecuador. Nearly all of the New World species of Fuchsia are pollinated by hummingbirds, whereas the South Pacific species are pollinated mainly by honeyeaters (Meliphagidae).

Inflorescence of Calopogon oklahomensis (Orchidaceae), a recently described species from the midwestern and southeastern United States. Calopogon, a small genus of primarily wetland plants native to eastern North America and the northern Caribbean, has had uncertain infrageneric taxonomy and relationships.

Female flowers of Amborella trichopoda. A study of Amborella, a candidate for the basal-most angiosperm, and B-function MADS-box genes.

Alpinia, the largest genus in the ginger family (Zingiberaceae), is primarily pollinated by bees. At the Cai Yung Hu Reserve in Yunnan, China, the single anther of each flower of A. blepharocalyx deposits pollen on the back of the Bombus pollinators as they enter the flowers to take nectar. Alpinia as currently defined includes six polyphyletic clades in the tribe Alpinieae.

The tribe Malveae (subfamily Malvoideae, Malvaceae), with approximately 70 genera that grow in a variety of habitats in both tropic and temperate areas, has remarkably diverse flowers. The phylogenetic analysis of ITS sequence data revealed two large clades in the tribe in the article by Tate et al.: Phylogenetic relationships within the tribe Malveae (Malvaceae, subfamily Malvoideae) as inferred from ITS sequence data. 1. Gaya atiquipana, coastal Peru; 2. Sida cordifolia, Magdalena Valley, Colombia; 3. Iliamna bakeri, Shasta County, California, USA; 4. Dendrosida cuatrecasasii, Central Cordillera of Colombia; 5. Sidasodes colombiana, Eastern Cordillera, Colombia; 6. Nototriche pedicularifolia, Andes of Peru; 7. Tarasa humilis, Andes of Argentina; 8. Malacothamnus palmeri, Monterey County, California, USA; 9. Hoheria populnea, New Zealand; 10. Callirhoë involucrata, Travis County, Texas, USA; and 11. Sidastrum paniculatum from Ecuador.