Practice question

Aestivation describes precise spatial arrangement of sepals and petals within same whorl while still enclosed in floral bud, determining overlap pattern crucial for family identification. Valvate margins merely touch without overlap as in mustard, twisted each overlaps neighbor regularly as in Hibiscus, imbricate irregular overlapping as in gulmohur, vexillary posterior largest overlapping as in pea. It differs from inflorescence arrangement which describes flower placement on peduncle, fusion of parts is cohesion adhesion, symmetry actinomorphic versus zygomorphic. Aestivation types serve as stable taxonomic characters reflecting petal packing efficiency and developmental phyllotaxy constraints.