New Zealand Journal of Botany abstracts

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Embryogeny in Phyllocladus

C. J. QUINN

School of Botany
University of New South Wales
Kensington, New South Wales
Australia

Abstract Gametophyte development and embryogeny is described in Phyllocladus trichom- anoides D. Don for the first time, and the proem- bryo of P. asplenifolius var. alpinus H. Keng is reinvestigated. The three New Zealand species typ- ically have a strongly thickened megaspore mem- brane, two large elongated and deeply embedded archegonia containing an enlarged egg nucleus, conspicuously unequal male gamete nuclei, and one or both prothallial nuclei free in the pollen tube. Proembryogeny in both the species investigated conforms to the pattern established for a wide range of genera in the Podocarpaceae, resulting in a three- tiered proembryo in which all the cells of the E tier are binucleate. This is seen as strong evidence of a close affinity between Phyllocladus and other gen- era of the Podocarpaceae, and supports the reten- tion of the genus in that family.

Keywords Phyllocladus; Podocarpaceae; Phyl- locladaceae; embryogeny; proembryo; gameto- phyte; conifer; taxonomy

Received 12 March 1986; accepted 29 April 1986
New Zealand Journal of Botany, 1986, Vol. 24: 575-579
0028-825X/86/2404-0575$2.50/0 © Crown copyright 1986

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (436K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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