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Article: Flowers
- Article from:
- Plant Sciences
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Flowers
An enormous diversity of size, shape, and complexity exists among the flowers of the quarter-million species of
angiosperms
. Flower size varies over a thousandfold, with
Rafflesia
(Rafflesiaceae) flowers as large as 1 meter in diameter dwarfing the minuscule flowers of
Wolffia
(Lemnaceae), which measure less than 1 millimeter across. The number of floral organs also varies, with the complex flowers of the
Tambourissa
(Monimiaceae) species having more than one thousand organs while the simple flowers of the Chloranthaceae may consist of just a few. The coevolution of angiosperms with their animal pollinators is a driving force in the generation of flower diversity. The end ...
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