Of particular interest to botanists is what Darwin described as an abominable mystery : the origin of flowering plants.

PAGE C1 Uncovering Plants' Origins Biologists have answered a question that Darwin called the "abominable mystery": how did the world's flowering plants first evolve?

Comparing characteristics of this basal angiosperm, other flowering plants and fossils may provide clues about how flowers first appeared-what Darwin called the "abominable mystery".

One question scientists hope to answer is Darwin's "abominable mystery"; when, where, and why flowering plants emerged.

Now, they are at last gaining clues into what Charles Darwin described as an "abominable mystery," the evolution of the most important plant group alive.

The apparently sudden appearance of relatively modern flowers in the fossil record posed such a problem for the theory of evolution that it was called an "abominable mystery" by Charles Darwin.

Just why plants gave up their sleepy, asexual ways isn't clear; Charles Darwin called it "an abominable mystery."

The first and second floors contained a dozen rooms in which these abominable mysteries were practised.

The rapid development as far as we can judge of all the higher plants within recent geological times is an abominable mystery.

Ultimately, said Dennis Stevenson, the garden's vice president for botanical science, some of its long-term research could provide answers to "what Darwin called the abominable mystery - when, where and why flowering plants emerged."