Review of The Wild Oat Inflorescence and Seed: Anatomy, Development and Morphology, by M. V. S. Raju

Authors

David M. Sutherland, University of Nebraska-OmahaFollow

Date of this Version

August 1991

Comments

Published in Great Plains Research 1:2 (August 1991), pp. 353–354. Copyright © 1991 The Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Used by permission. http://www.unl.edu/plains/publications/GPR/gpr.shtml

Abstract

This slim volume describes a detailed study of the reproductive parts of Avena farua, the wild oat plant--a common weed in the northern plains and the probable ancestor of the cultivated oat. The book integrates the author's own work with information from available literature and includes lengthy technical descriptions of the structure and the growth of the inflorescence, the floret, the ovule, the pollen grain, the embryo, the seed, and the young seedling. Throughout the work, the author relates the wild oat's structure and development to other grasses, other monocotyledons, and other seed plants, offering evolutionary interpretations of many of the features observed. He places particular emphasis on the relationship of structure to the onset and breaking of seed dormancy.