An Arabidopsis plant, labelled to show the primary inflorescence (red arrow), secondary inflorescences (white arrows) and tertiary inflorescences (yellow arrows).
Our work suggests that plants have a ‘target’ number of flowers, which is independent of the number of inflorescences they make. Furthermore, our work suggests that, in the Brassicaceae, 50% of this target number of flowers is located on the secondary inflorescences, regardless of how many inflorescences there are. We want to understand the mechanisms by which plants determine their target flower number, and by which this is correctly and precisely distributed across inflorescences.
Tom Bennett Lab 