Facts and fiction in floral morphology with special reference to the Polycarpicae. 3. Consequences and various additional aspects of the anthocorm theory

In this third, and final, part the various implications of the Anthocorm Theory with regard to the floral morphology, the taxonomy (classification) and the phylogenetic relationships of a number of major angiospermous groups are discussed, including the organogeny, the phylloand stachyotaxis, the homotopy, and the homologies in the floral region, and the so-called ‘cortical’ vascular system in the flower of the Magnoliaceae. In the final discussion, the divergent semophyletic evolution of the floral region from a primitive anthocormoid reproductive structure is shown to have culminated in an early phylogenetic divergence of the major dicotyledonous groups from ancestral forms whose floral organs (anthocorms) must have been rather similar to those of the recent Saururaceae. The functional reproductive units of some of these taxa (notably of the Piperales) have not advanced to an appreciable extent beyond the anthocormoid archetype and have not attained the semophyletic level of a (true) flower.