NEWTON, ANGELA E. Botany Department, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK. - Form and function in bryophytes:development, constraints and consequences.
Observed form can be proposed to be the result of interacting
constraints and demands. Historical factors (phylogenetic constraints)
determine the range of structural features from which novel forms can
evolve, while developmental constraints influence which of all
possible novel forms will be feasible in the genetic environment in
which they are expressed. Environmental factors interact with
morphology at different scales - the relationship of growth form to
life strategy and the physical and temporal exploitation of
environmental resources, and the role of form in mediating the
interaction between physiology and the environment through water &
mineral capture, desiccation tolerance and gas exchange. In this
symposium a selection of these interacting elements will be explored.
Key words: bryophytes, constraints, development, morphology, physiology