Approximately two decades after the first pioneering analyses, the study of shape asymmetry
with the methods of geometric morphometrics has matured and is a burgeoning field. New …

Hybridization can facilitate both evolutionary diversification and extinction and has had a
critical role in plant evolution, with c. 25% of species known to hybridize in some temperate …

The structure of compound leaves provides flexibility for morphological change by variation
in the shapes, sizes and arrangement of leaflets. Here, we conduct a multilevel analysis of …

Present-day correlations between leaf physiognomic traits (shape and size) and climate are
widely used to estimate paleoclimate using fossil floras. For example, leaf-margin analysis …

Altitudinal gradients are characterized by steep changes of the physical and biotic
environment that present challenges to plant adaptation throughout large parts of the world …

Because plants are unable to move away from unfavourable habitats and environmental
perturbations, leaf phenotypic plasticity facilitates light absorption and gas exchange. Oaks …

Symmetry is an important feature of floral structure, and floral symmetries are diverse and
often complex. We use a new morphometric approach for analysing shapes with complex …

Fluctuating asymmetry (FA) is widely used to quantify developmental instability (DI) in
ecological and evolutionary studies. It has long been recognized that FA may not exclusively …

Studies of shape asymmetry have become increasingly abundant as the methods of
geometric morphometrics have gained widespread use. Most of these studies have …

Key message Leaf symmetry and leaf size are explained by genetic variation between and
within lineages and to a lesser extent by climatic factors, while leaf asymmetry can only be …