The origin, early evolution and basal phylogeny of angiosperms continue to be areas of ferment in botanical research. Rapid progress is being made, in part due to the unprecedented number of approaches now available and to the increased amount of empirical data. The topics of angiosperm structure and evolution are covered in several chapters that discuss vegetative and reproductive characters, as well as discuss the implications of ancestral angiosperm characters for an herbaceous origin. The last chapters discuss the phylogeny of angiosperms from a structure and molecular perspective.