

The Australasian water plant Hydatella has an unusual reproduction according to research published in the current issue of Nature. The research shows a number of rare embryological features,including one that is unique among flowering plants and will come as a surprise to plant biologists.
The flowering plant family Hydatellaceae was recently discovered to be allied to the ancient angiosperm lineage Nymphaeales (water lilies).
William Friedman of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder examined the reproductive structures of Hydatella and described a number of rare embryological features which, in combination, are found only in members of the equally primitive Nymphaeales - water lilies. However, Hydatella has something additional - the provisioning of the seed from maternal rather than embryonic tissue - a feature that is unique among flowering plants but relatively common among 'naked seed' plants such as conifers, and could be a relic of the earliest evolutionary history of flowering plants.
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