The eFLOWER initiative: A framework for understanding the evolution and diversification of flowers

is coordinated by

eFLOWER is a collaborative, international research project aimed at answering key questions on the evolution of flowers.

  • What were flowers like in deep nodes of the angiosperm tree?
  • Which floral innovations are linked with major increases in diversification rates?
  • How are floral characters correlated with one another?
  • To what extent has floral diversification been driven by pollination?
  • Where do fossil flowers fit on the phylogeny of extant angiosperms?

Reconstruction of the ancestral flower of angiosperms (© Hervé Sauquet/Jürg Schönenberger)

Reconstruction of the ancestral flower of angiosperms (© Hervé Sauquet/Jürg Schönenberger)