Examples of plant evolution?? Help me out guys!?

Question

I'm writing a paper, and need a few different examples. I have orchids down, but could also use a little more detail on those.

Thanks a bunch!

Answer 1

Well living in New Zealand we have some really interesting an unusual examples of plant evolution....I guess it depends on what aspects of plant evolution you are talking about!!

Plants that come to mind is the Hebe genus an example of adaptive radiation where we have around 100 species here and limited species overseas ...I think there are a couple in south america and in a couple of other places...

There is Nothofagus or southern beech which occurs in the old Gondwana places of New Zealand, australia, southern south america ( eg chile, argentina)...oh and antartica....ok there are only fossils there of the forests.

As i said it depends on which aspect you are looking for....actual groups or devlopment of unsual traits...in New Zealand we have extremely high levels of polyploidy, dioecious plants, white flowering and generic flowers, divaricating plants and heteroblasty or heterobastism( juvinile and adult plants having completely different leaves and even plant structure with juvenile being a divaricating bush while the adult having a dominant straight stem!!) ...take your pick....the websites may be of use in some aspects

Answer 2

You could write about the evolution from perfect flowers (e.g. magnolia) to a reduced wind-dispersed flower (maple or ash).  Magnolias are primitive flowers with all the major flower parts.  Maples, in contrast, have very reduced flowers, lacking petals, etc.  Even though maples seem simpler (fewer floral parts), they are actually more evolutionary derived (i.e. the loss of the petal was an evolutionary advantage for wind dispersed pollen). Ashes are similar, but are also dioecious (male and female flowers are on separate plants).