In search of the origins of observations of heterostyly

Last updated: 20 Sep, 2017


In 1860, Charles Darwin had an epiphany.  This was not an epiphany on the origin of species ... This epiphany, which Darwin shared in a letter to his friend Joseph Dalton Hooker, was that flowers in the genus Primula display two distinct forms which differ in the length of the pistil's styles and the height of the stamen's anthers.

 

A Biodiversity Heritage Library blog post highlights a historical Tansley review by Professor Philip M. Gilmartin. For the review, published in New Phytologist in 2015, Gilmartin sought out the earliest observations of heterostyly, making extensive use of the Biodiversity Heritage Library's online resources.

 

 

 

 

Read the Tansley review for free to uncover the the origins of observations of heterostyly: Gilmartin, P. M. (2015) On the origins of observations of heterostyly in Primula. New Phytologist, 208: 39–51. doi: 10.1111/nph.13558

 

Read the BHL blog post here.

 

The New Phytologist Trust reinvests journal subscription revenue to ensure that New Phytologist Tansley reviews and Tansley insights are free to read as soon as they are published online. Search the archive.

 

Mike Whitfield (@mgwhitfield)
Development Coordinator
New Phytologist