Fruit structure in Magnoliaceae s.l. and Archaeanthus and their relationships

The family Magnoliaceae s.l. is a basal angiosperm family with two subfamilies-Magnolioideae and Liriodendroideae, which differ by the types and structure of their fruits and seeds. The late Albian genus Archaeanthus shares many features of its reproductive organs with Magnoliaceae s.l., but its pericarp anatomy was never studied in detail. A broad-scale carpological investigation of Archaeanthus and Magnoliaceae s.l. was undertaken to reveal the nature of the similarities in fruit structure and to reconstruct Archaeanthus pericarp anatomy. These data are important to determine the early stages of fruit morphogenesis and thus to clarify relationships of Archaeanthus to the taxa of Magnoliaceae s.l.

The pericarp anatomy was studied with light microscopy, SEM, and polarizing microscopy.

The dehiscent, polyspermous follicles shed from the receptacle of Archaeanthus share similarities with dehiscent follicles of Magnoliaceae s.s. and shedding nutlets of Liriodendron. The seeds of Archaeanthus are dorsiventrally flattened, ovoid, and encircled with a single circular wing. The pericarps of all the taxa studied are differentiated into exocarp (epidermis), multilayered mesocarp, and endocarp (fiber-like sclereids). The mesocarp consists of parenchyma with scattered secretory cells and sclereid clusters (Magnoliaceae s.s., Archaeanthus) or composed by sclerenchyma (Liriodendron).

The specializations of dehiscent multifollicles of unknown Cretaceous ancestors for different modes of seed and fruitlet dispersal formed the basis for the differentiation of two evolutionary lines with their divergence occurring more than 100 million years ago: Magnoliaceae s.s. and the Archaeanthus-Liriodendroidea-Liriodendron line (Liriodendraceae s.l.) within the order Magnoliales.