Cover Illustration: Tetraplasandra gymnocarpa (Hillebr.) Sherff is the only species in the Araliaceae with a fully superior ovary. This endangered species is endemic to the windswept, summit cliffs of the Koolau Mountain Range of Oahu, Hawaiian Islands. The superior ovary in T. gymnocarpa developed from an inferior ovary ground plan. It is hypothesized that this evolutionary shift could be due to a shift in pollinator strategy that allowed a relaxation of the selective pressures favoring an inferior ovary. See Costello and Motley: The development of the superior ovary in Tetraplasandra (Araliaceae), pp. 644-655 in the previous issue, May 2004, of the journal. Photo credit: Timothy J. Motley.
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Copyright © 2004 by the Botanical Society of America, Inc.
