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Overview

Organised by Sir Peter Crane FRS, Professor Else Marie Friis and Professor William Chaloner FRS

This meeting will highlight the influence of Darwin on our understanding of the evolution of flowers, presenting new and emerging evidence from seed plant phylogenetics, palaeobotany and morphology. It will review how recent research in these and related fields has brought us closer to resolving the origin of flowers and flowering plants (Darwin's so-called "abominable mystery"). The recent clarification of angiosperm phylogeny at many taxonomic levels, coupled with evidence from the fossil record has given new opportunities for understanding patterns in the evolution of floral structure and biology.

This meeting will also explore how the vast range of floral form seen in the angiosperms has been generated by developmental genetics, and the impacts of contemporary environmental change on the pollination of flowers.

The proceedings of this meeting are scheduled to be published in a future issues of Philosophical Transactions B.

Organisers

Schedule