Amborella | |
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Amborella buds and flowers | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | |
(unranked): | |
Order: | Amborellales |
Family: | Amborellaceae |
Genus: | Amborella |
Binomial name | |
Amborella trichopoda |
Amborella trichopoda is a small, evergreen shrub. It occurs only in the moist, shaded understory of montane forests on the South Pacific island of New Caledonia. The genus is the only member of the family Amborellaceae and contains only this single species.
Amborella is of great interest to plant systematists because molecular phylogenetic analyses put it at or near the base of the flowering plant lineage.
The Amborellaceae are distinctive. They are sprawling evergreen shrubs or small trees. Their tissue is different from any other Angiosperm. The xylem of Amborella contains only tracheids; vessel elements are absent. Xylem of this form has long been regarded as a "primitive" feature of flowering plants.