ReviewDie Naturwissenschaften2009
Evolutionary plant physiology: Charles Darwin's forgotten synthesis.
Review in Die Naturwissenschaften, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 49 citations in OpenAlex.
- Francis Darwin (1848-1925): the biologist in the shadow of father Charles.Plant signaling & behavior · 2025Article
- The brain: a concept in flux.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2019Review
- Root cap-mediated evaluation of soil resistance towards graviresponding roots of maize (Zea mays L.) and the relevance of ethylene.Annals of botany · 2018Article
- From Goethe's plant archetype via Haeckel's biogenetic law to plant evo-devo 2016.Theory in biosciences = Theorie in den Biowissenschaften · 2017Article
- The evolution of the plant genome-to-morphology auxin circuit.Theory in biosciences = Theorie in den Biowissenschaften · 2016Article
- Growth-limiting proteins in maize coleoptiles and the auxin-brassinosteroid hypothesis of mesocotyl elongation.Protoplasma · 2016Review
- Leeches of the genus Helobdella as model organisms for Evo-Devo studies.Theory in biosciences = Theorie in den Biowissenschaften · 2015Article
- Kleiber's Law: How the Fire of Life ignited debate, fueled theory, and neglected plants as model organisms.Plant signaling & behavior · 2015Review
- Basic versus applied research: Julius Sachs (1832-1897) and the experimental physiology of plants.Plant signaling & behavior · 2015Article
- Metabolic scaling theory in plant biology and the three oxygen paradoxa of aerobic life.Theory in biosciences = Theorie in den Biowissenschaften · 2013Article
- Root apex transition zone as oscillatory zone.Frontiers in plant science · 2013Article
- Using evolution as a guide to engineer kranz-type c4 photosynthesis.Frontiers in plant science · 2013Article
- Organ-specific rates of cellular respiration in developing sunflower seedlings and their bearing on metabolic scaling theory.Protoplasma · 2012Article
- Photophobic behavior of maize roots.Plant signaling & behavior · 2012Article
- Brassinosteroid action in flowering plants: a Darwinian perspective.Journal of experimental botany · 2012Review
- Review
- Plant development, auxin, and the subsystem incompleteness theorem.Frontiers in plant science · 2012Article
- From the scala naturae to the symbiogenetic and dynamic tree of life.Biology direct · 2011Article
- Ontogenetic changes in the scaling of cellular respiration with respect to size among sunflower seedlings.Plant signaling & behavior · 2011Article
- The 'root-brain' hypothesis of Charles and Francis Darwin: Revival after more than 125 years.Plant signaling & behavior · 2009Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Charles Darwin dedicated more than 20 years of his life to a variety of investigations on higher plants (angiosperms). It has been implicitly assumed that these studies in the fields of descriptive botany and experimental plant physiology were carried out to corroborate his principle of descent with modification. However, Darwin's son Francis, who was a professional plant biologist, pointed out that the interests of his father were both of a physiological and an evolutionary nature. In this article, we describe Darwin's work on the physiology of higher plants from a modern perspective, with reference to the following topics: circumnutations, tropisms and the endogenous oscillator model; the evolutionary patterns of auxin action; the root-brain hypothesis; phloem structure and photosynthesis research; endosymbioses and growth-promoting bacteria; photomorphogenesis and phenotypic plasticity; basal metabolic rate, the Pfeffer-Kleiber relationship and metabolic optimality theory with respect to adaptive evolution; and developmental constraints versus functional equivalence in relationship to directional natural selection. Based on a review of these various fields of inquiry, we deduce the existence of a Darwinian (evolutionary) approach to plant physiology and define this emerging scientific discipline as the experimental study and theoretical analysis of the functions of green, sessile organisms from a phylogenetic perspective.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.