The Wild Oat Inflorescence and Seed: Anatomy, Development and Morphology

Ian Wylie Toal is a free-lance writer living in Flesherton, Ontario.

In this book, Raju, a botanist at the University of Regina, thoroughly
examines the structure and development of the wild oat seed and the
seed-bearing inflorescence.

His information results from several years of intensive study of the
anatomy and ontogeny of the wild oat seed. That work was considered
necessary because two characteristics of the wild oat seed—the
seed’s dormancy and the lack of uniform germination after dormancy is
broken—have helped make it a successful weed species in the Prairies.
The author sought to understand how the seed’s structure and
development are linked to dormancy and germination.

Accordingly, the bulk of Raju’s book consists of a detailed
description of the inflorescence and seed parts. The sections cover the
inflorescence, the floret, embryology, embryo development, endosperm
development, embryo envelopes, shedding of caryopses, morphology of
caryopsis, seedling anatomy, embryo morphology, and germination. Raju
proposes several radical reinterpretations of the origin of certain
structures and concludes by linking the embryo envelopes to the
exclusion of water from the seed, resulting in dormancy.

This is a difficult book to read. Nonspecialist readers, in particular,
may find it hard going. There is no glossary to help clarify the obscure
language of plant anatomy, and no index to aid in cross-referencing
information. These omissions prove especially frustrating because the
book’s structure is slightly illogical: for example, a detailed
discussion of floret anatomy precedes the chapter in which many of the
terms are defined. Further, Raju fails to place the narrow range of
information successfully within a wider context, another flaw that may
discourage nonspecialist readers. Specialists, no doubt, will appreciate
the wealth of detail about wild oat seed structure, the good list of
references, and the 200 figures (many of them photographs).