Duckweeds as a model for minimal floral development

Abstract

While most frameworks of floral evolution are based on complex, multi-whorled flowers, duckweeds represent the opposite extreme, with highly reduced angiosperm reproductive structures comprising a single gynoecium and one or two stamens embedded within the frond. We review current work on the genetic regulation and evolution of duckweed flowers. Morphological evidence indicates duckweed flowers arose by progressive miniaturisation from a typical aroid spadix–spathe inflorescence. We outline how single-cell and multiomic atlases, integrated with comparative and population genomics, can reconstruct developmental trajectories across lineages. Treating duckweeds as a ‘minimal flower’ model could shed new insights into the minimal cellular and genetic programme required for flower development, and open opportunities to rationally engineer reproductive traits in crops and other plant systems.