Flower Fasciation: I. Origin of Enlarged Meristem

Abstract

Different ways of formation of fasciated floral meristem were analyzed. It has been demonstrated that distinguishing between phenomena of enlargement of a single growing point and fusion of a few into single one is impossible. The frequency of abnormalities is proposed as criterion for such classification. The investigation of developmental abnormalities, teratology, has recently obtained a somewhat different meaning as compared with a period of its origin. Except function of direct description of certain teratological phenomena, this part of morphology entered a field of modeling of developmental processes, mutation analysis, and even evolutionary reconstructions in light of the Evo-Devo concept. Teratology itself has tightly associated with contemporary molecular developmental genetics, the latter significantly pushing out the structural approach in understanding of morphological abnormalities.