Amborella trichopoda is a rare, vesselless, understory shrub or small tree found only on the island of New Caledonia. It is of great interest in plant systematics because modern molecular systematics data place it at or near the base of the flowering plants. That is, it represents a line of flowering plants that very early on diverged (about 130 million years ago) from all the other extant species of flowering plants. Comparing characteristics of this extant basal angiosperm, more derived flowe… (More on Amborella)