Version 1
: Received: 1 April 2024 / Approved: 1 April 2024 / Online: 2 April 2024 (10:44:23 CEST)
How to cite:
Sinjushin, A. Floral nectaries in Leguminosae: structure, diversity, and possible evolution. Preprints2024, 2024040128. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202404.0128.v1
Sinjushin, A. Floral nectaries in Leguminosae: structure, diversity, and possible evolution. Preprints 2024, 2024040128. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202404.0128.v1
Sinjushin, A. Floral nectaries in Leguminosae: structure, diversity, and possible evolution. Preprints2024, 2024040128. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202404.0128.v1
APA Style
Sinjushin, A. (2024). Floral nectaries in Leguminosae: structure, diversity, and possible evolution. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202404.0128.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Sinjushin, A. 2024 "Floral nectaries in Leguminosae: structure, diversity, and possible evolution" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202404.0128.v1
Abstract
Floral nectar is a key reward in Leguminosae despite the exceptional diversity of flowers in this family. The paper aims to summarize the available data on structure, ontogeny, regulation, and possible evolution of the leguminous floral nectaries. To date, detailed characterization of ultrastructure and mode of secretion is available only for a few representative of the family whereas the majority remains understudied from this perspective. In most cases, regardless of flower symmetry, nectaries are localized between stamens and a carpel. The nectar is usually exuded from modified stomata although the exact mode of secretion by specialized parenchyma may differ between taxa. The leguminous floral nectaries often have certain features of monosymmetry with preferentially abaxial development. Nectaries were independently lost in several lineages, and equally recurrent is the emergence of substitutive, i.e. evolutionary innovative, nectar-producing structures. Floral nectaries possess a certain degree of evolutionary inertia, i.e. they remain stable even in lineages in which flower morphology underwent significant changes compared with an ancestral plan, such as shifts in merism, symmetry, organ number and alike. Due to their evolutionary stability, floral nectaries are rarely used in taxonomy of Leguminosae.
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
