Heteroblasty and preformation in mayapple, Podophyllum Peltatum (Berberidaceae): developmental flexibility and...

Developmental preformation can constrain growth responses of shoots to current conditions, but there is potential for flexibility in development preceding formation of the preformed organs. Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) is strongly heteroblastic, producing rhizome scales, bud scales, and either a single vegetative foliage leaf or two foliage leaves on a sexual shoot. To understand how and when preformation constrains growth responses, we compare (1) how leaf homologs of the renewal shoot differ in development, (2) whether there are differences in shoot development that occur in advance of morphological determination of shoot type, and (3) whether there are points of developmental flexibility in renewal shoot growth prior to preformation of the foliage and floral organs. We use scanning electron microscopy and histology to show that the three vegetative leaves (both types of scale leaves and the vegetative foliage leaf) are similar in the initial establishment of an encircling and overarching leaf base. Differences among them are found in the timing of differentiation of the leaf base and in the relative timing and degree of growth of the lamina and petiole. In contrast, foliage leaves on sexual shoots show less expression of the leaf base and precocious growth of the lamina and petiole. Prior to shoot type determination, there are no morphological differences in the sequence or position of leaf homologs that predict final shoot type. In this colony, leaves at positions 12 and 13, on average, appear to be identical in development until they are between 700 and 800 μm in length, when it becomes possible to distinguish leaves that will become vegetative foliage leaves from additional bud scale leaves on vegetative or sexual shoots. We suggest that late developmental determination of leaves at positions 12 and 13 reflects ontogenetic sensitivity to a transition to flowering. Thus, in mayapple, heteroblasty appears to facilitate developmental flexibility prior to the point where shoot growth becomes constrained by preformation of determined aerial structures.