Multimedia Gallery
Frond of the lycophyte Selaginella moellendorffii.
Frond of the lycophyte Selaginella moellendorffii. Biologists have discovered that a fundamental building block in the cells of flowering plants evolved independently, yet almost identically, in the 420-million-year-old lycophyte lineage. Called syringyl lignin, the building block is a critical part of the plants' scaffolding and water-transport systems, yet it apparently emerged separately much like flight arose separately in both bats and birds.
Credit: Jing-Ke Weng, Department of Biochemistry, Purdue University
Images credited to the National Science Foundation, a federal agency, are in the public domain. The images were created by employees of the United States Government as part of their official duties or prepared by contractors as "works for hire" for NSF. You may freely use NSF-credited images and, at your discretion, credit NSF with a "Courtesy: National Science Foundation" notation.
Additional information about general usage can be found in Conditions.
Also Available:
Download the high-resolution JPG version of the image. (1.5 MB)
Use your mouse to right-click (Mac users may need to Ctrl-click) the link above and choose the option that will save the file or target to your computer.
Related story: When Plants "Think" Alike