Amborella trichopoda

Amborella is a monotypic genus of rare understory shrubs or small trees endemic to the main
island, Grande Terre, of New Caledonia.[4] The genus is the only member of the family
Amborellaceae and the order Amborellales and contains a single species, Amborella
trichopoda.[4] Amborella is of great interest to plant systematists because molecular
phylogenetic analyses consistently place the genus at or near the base of the flowering plant
lineage.

Amborella is a sprawling shrub or small tree up to 8 m high. It bears alternate or decussate,

simple evergreen leaves without stipules.[4][5] The leaves are two-ranked, with distinctly
serrated or rippled margins, and about 8 to 10 cm long.[5]

Description
Amborella has xylem tissue that differs from that of most other flowering plants. The xylem
of Amborella contains only tracheids; vessel elements are absent.[6] Xylem of this form has
long been regarded as a "primitive" feature of flowering plants.[7]

The species is dioecious. This means that each plant produces either "male flowers" (meaning
that they have functional stamens) or "female flowers" (flowers with functional carpels), but
not both.[8] At any one time, a dioecious plant produces only functionally staminate or
functionally carpellate flowers. Staminate ("male") Amborella flowers do not have carpels,
whereas the carpellate ("female") flowers have non-functional "staminodes", structures
resembling stamens in which no pollen develops. Plants may change from one reproductive
morphology to the other. In one study, seven cuttings from a staminate plant produced, as
expected, staminate flowers at their first flowering, but three of the seven produced carpellate
flowers at their second flowering.[9]

The small, creamy white, flowers are arranged in inflorescences borne in the axils of foliage
leaves.[10] The inflorescences have been described as cymes, with up to three orders of
branching, each branch being terminated by a flower.[10] Each flower is subtended by
bracts.[10] The bracts transition into a perianth of undifferentiated tepals.[10] The tepals
typically are arranged in a spiral, but sometimes are whorled at the periphery.

Carpellate flowers are roughly 3 to 4 mm in diameter, with 7 or 8 tepals. There are 1 to 3 (or
rarely 0) well-differentiated staminodes and a spiral of 4 to 8 free (apocarpous) carpels.
Carpels bear green ovaries; they lack a style. They contain a single ovule with the micropyle
directed downwards. Staminate flowers are approximately 4 to 5 mm in diameter, with 6 to 15
tepals. These flowers bear 10 to 21 spirally arranged stamens, which become progressively
smaller toward the center. The innermost may be sterile, amounting to staminodes. Stamens
bear triangular anthers on short broad filaments. An anther consists of four pollen sacs, two on
each side, with a small sterile central connective. The anthers have connective tips with small
bumps and may be covered with secretions.[11] These features suggest that, as with other basal
angiosperms, there is a high degree of developmental plasticity.[9]

Typically, 1 to 3 carpels per flower develop into fruit. The fruit is an ovoid red drupe
(approximately 5 to 7 mm long and 5 mm wide) borne on a short (1 to 2 mm) stalk. The
remains of the stigma can be seen at the tip of the fruit. The skin is papery, surrounding a thin
fleshy layer containing a red juice. The inner pericarp is lignified and surrounds the single
seed. The embryo is small and surrounded by copious endosperm.[12]

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amborella

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Amborella_trichopoda_(3065969750).jpg
http://amborella.huck.psu.edu/amborella

http://www.strangewonderfulthings.com/356.htm