Floral vascular patterns of the double-flowered and wild-type morphs of Nigella damascena L. (Ranunculaceae)

Abstract

Thierry Deroin, Catherine Damerval, Martine Le Guilloux, Florian Jabbour

The perianth of the double-flowered morph of Nigella damascena L. consists of spirally inserted petaloid sepals and sepal-like organs, similar in shape and colour to the petaloid sepals of the wild-type flower. It is devoid of petals. We compare the vascularization of each organ category of the double flower with that of the wild-type. We show that the vascular patterns of the sepal-like organs and of the petals are identical, and found an inverse relationship between the number of bracts and the number of sepals in the double-flowered morph. These two surprising findings will influence the future evo-devo studies on this plant model.