Origin of Land Plants

A critical, synthetic and comprehensive account offering discussion of early environments, the history of thought on land plant origins, various approaches used to study early plant evolution and the characteristics of green algae. Includes new ideas regarding evolution, comparative studies of fossil plants and carbon availability. Features abundant illustrations and an extensive bibliography.

Early Silurian and Late Ordovician Environments. Approaches to an Understanding of Early Land Plant Evolution. The Charophycean Algae. Morphology, Ecology, and Physiology of Charophytes. Gaps Between Charophycean Algae and Land Plants. The Evolution of Plant Morphology: Cell Walls, Cytoskeleton, Cytokinesis, Intercellular Communication, and Histogenesis. Evolution of Plant Sexual Reproduction. The Origin of Plant Signal Transduction Systems, Phytohormones, Photomorphogenesis, and Secondary Metabolism. Land Plant Origins--A Summary. Literature Cited. Index.