A very large rock has been tossed into the placid pool of classical plant taxonomy. This article will describe the implications of the resulting wave on the palaeobotanical community at large. As a member of the Palaeontological Section of the latter group, I was keen to attend this gathering of approximately 900 attendees, for 4 days of talks, poster sessions, and informal meetings with current palaeobotanists. Called cladograms, these branching diagrams are read left to right, to show increasing diversity and presumed evolutionary pathways for the taxa under consideration. Some random notes from these sessions follow.
Fungi are much more related to animals, than to higher plants.
Existing phylogenies of living plants may or may not be supported by cladistic analyses. While some older phylogenies are supported by the new techniques, it some cases new and unsuspected relationships are discovered. Amborella is the most ancient living dicot. Native to New Caledonia in the Pacific,at present there is only one living specimen in the United States - at the Arboretum at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Acorus is sister clade to all monocots.