Practice question

Plastid phylogenomics incorporating rbcL, atpB, matK plus mitochondrial nad and nuclear concatenated genes robustly resolves Amborella trichopoda, shrub endemic New Caledonia with creamy white flowers spirally arranged, as earliest diverging living angiosperm sister to all others with maximal bootstrap support 100 percent. Its placement predates divergence of Nymphaeales water lilies and Austrobaileyales including star anise. Traits like vesselless wood, single aperturate pollen, spirally arranged ascidiate carpels reflect ancestral states useful for reconstructing protoflower ancestral morphology. Magnolia, Nymphaea, Illicium diverge later within mesangiosperms, not basal, making Amborella model organism genome project.