G. Ledyard Stebbins
Stebbins's review, The significance of polyploidy in plant evolution, showed how polyploidy was important in developing large, complex, and widespread genera. By looking at the history of polyploidy in plant families, he argued that polyploidy was only common in herbaceous perennials, but infrequent in woody plants and annuals. As such, polyploids played a conservative role in evolution since problems with fertility prevented the replication of new genetic material that might lead to a new line of evolution. This work continued with the 1947 paper Types of polyploids: their classification and significance, which described Stebbins' ideas about the role of paleopolyploidy in angiosperm evolution. He argued that chromosome number may be a useful tool for the construction of phylogenies. These reviews were highly influential and helped others study the role of polyploidy in evolution.