Inflorescence and flower development in wild-type andsidmutantMelilotus alba, white sweetclover

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
White sweetclover, Melilotus alba Desr. (Fabaceae), produces white, papilionoid flowers on a simple raceme. Individual floral apices originate in the axil of a bract. Each flower consists of five alternating whorls that, from outside to inside, consist of (i) five sepals, (ii) five petals, of which two fuse along their abaxial edges to form the keel, (iii) five antesepalous stamens, (iv) five antepetalous stamens with shorter filaments, and (v) a single carpel containing two to four ovules. The development of the wild-type sweetclover inflorescence and flowers is described in detail and compared with a mutant in which secondary inflorescences, instead of individual flowers, developed in axils of the bracts, especially at the base of the inflorescence. This white sweetclover mutant, designated sid for "secondary inflorescence development", might serve as a test of the ABC model of floral development, which was based on the model plants Antirrhinum and Arabidopsis.Key words: white sweetclover, inflorescence, flower, development, sid mutant.
Keywords