How Angiosperm Plants and their Flowers Have Developed

Kvaček Z., Kvaček J.

Researchers do not yet know what is the connecting link between gymnosperm and angiosperm plants. Some representatives of an already extinct fern-like group (glossopterids, korystospermids, kaytonies) or bennettits can be considered as possible predecessors. The discovery of a fossil plant of the Early Cretaceous Period in China provides proof that angiosperms had small, partly naked flowers, mostly of separated sex, at the beginning of their development. The term “no flower” determines a transitory form between a flower and an inflorescence of primitive angiosperms. Such forms can be found today in some of the representatives of the water lily family (Nymphaeaceae) (water Trithuria).

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