Plant Architecture: A Dynamic, Multilevel and Comprehensive Approach to Plant Form, Structure and Ontogeny

• Published in: Annals of botany Vol. 99; no. 3; pp. 375 - 407
• Main Authors: BARTHÉLÉMY, DANIEL, CARAGLIO, YVES
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Oxford University Press 01.03.2007; Oxford Publishing Limited (England); Oxford University Press (OUP)
• Subjects: Architectural control; Architectural models; Architecture; Biodiversity and Ecology; Body Patterning; Botanics; Branches; Branching; Environment; Environmental Sciences; INVITED REVIEW; Life Sciences; Meristem - growth & development; Models, Biological; Plant architecture; Plant Development; Plant growth; Plant Leaves - anatomy & histology; Plant Leaves - growth & development; Plant morphology; Plant Shoots - anatomy & histology; Plant Shoots - growth & development; Plants; Plants - anatomy & histology; Trees; Vegetal Biology; differentiation; meristem; annual shoot; level of organization; physiological age; phenotypic plasticity; branching; ontogeny; phase change; Plant morphology; morphogenetic gradients; growth; plant architecture; Branching; Plant architecture; Meristem annual shoot; Growth; Level of organization; Phase change; Phenotypic plasticity; Ontogeny; Physiological age; Differentiation; Morphogenetic gradients
• ISSN: 0305-7364; 1095-8290
• DOI: 10.1093/aob/mcl260

• Background and Aims The architecture of a plant depends on the nature and relative arrangement of each of its parts; it is, at any given time, the expression of an equilibrium between endogenous growth processes and exogenous constraints exerted by the environment. The aim of architectural analysis is, by means of observation and sometimes experimentation, to identify and understand these endogenous processes and to separate them from the plasticity of their expression resulting from external influences. • Scope Using the identification of several morphological criteria and considering the plant as a whole, from germination to death, architectural analysis is essentially a detailed, multilevel, comprehensive and dynamic approach to plant development. Despite their recent origin, architectural concepts and analysis methods provide a powerful tool for studying plant form and ontogeny. Completed by precise morphological observations and appropriated quantitative methods of analysis, recent researches in this field have greatly increased our understanding of plant structure and development and have led to the establishment of a real conceptual and methodological framework for plant form and structure analysis and representation. This paper is a summarized update of current knowledge on plant architecture and morphology; its implication and possible role in various aspects of modern plant biology is also discussed.