Amborella trichopoda is a rare understory shrub found only on the island of New Caledonia. It is of great interest in plant systematics because modern systematics, using molecular data, places it at or near the base of the flowering plants. That is, it represents a line of flowering plants that very early on diverged (about 130 millions years ago) from all the other extant species of flowering plants, and so gives us some idea about what the ancestral flowering plants were like.

The leaves are alternately arranged, evergreen, simple, with a serrated margin, and about 8–10 cm long. Amborella trichopoda produces small flowers 4–8 mm across in loose clusters, each flower with several spirally-arranged tepals.

Amborella trichopoda is dioecious: each flower produces both stamens and carpels, but only one sex develops fully and fertile in the flowers of an individual plant, the structures of the other sex remaining undeveloped. The fruit is a red berry containing a single seed, 5–8 mm long.

Individuals of this species in the wild are being reduced by overgrazing and habitat destruction.

External links

• National Tropical Botanical Garden (Hawaii, USA): article with detailed photos of plants in cultivation
• Amborellaceae in L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz (1992 onwards). The families of flowering plants: descriptions, illustrations, identification, information retrieval. http://delta-intkey.com

Amborellaceae | plant families

Amborellales | Amborella trichopoda | Amborellaceae | Amborella trichopoda | Amborellales | Amborellales