This term is introduced here to name the proximal
part of the cotyledonary hyperphyll that raises the seed
well above the soil surface and is the first assimilating organ
of the seedling (Figs 1 and 2B). In endospermless
Alismatales with an enlarged storage hypocotyl (‘macropodous’
embryos/seedlings), the complete hyperphyll represents
a phaneromer after shedding the empty seed coat
(Fig. 2A). The phaneromer mostly grows straight upright
and is usually terete. Rarely it is somewhat flattenend and
widened, e.g. in Paris and Trillium. Curiously, this conspicuous
part of the seedling has never been named, previously
having been described, for example, as ‘green, upright,
assimilating, threadlike part of the cotyledon’. In some
cases its distal part at first or permanently bends sharply
(e.g. in many Alliaceae and Hyacinthaceae, Fig. 2B), in
extreme cases forming a ‘hairpin-like structure’
(Thongpukdee, 1989). In Poales such ‘hairpins’ are