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From: "P.Bruggeman" <pbruggeman at WISH.NET>
Subject: Re: Arisaema sexual strategies
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Susan,

>Strategy C involves abrupt inter-annual change from male to female. At
least 8 spp. follow strategy C:

A. dracontium from North America,
A. macrospathum from Mexico,
A. filiforme from Java,
A. grapsospadix from Taiwan,
A. prazeri from India and the Himalayas,
A. somalensis from Somalia,
A. tortuosum from India and China, and
A. wrayi from India

I think you can add a lot more species to this list. Certainly in
potcultivation (which usually equals a "luxury" treatment) most of the
species I grow show this behavior. With 2 species I even had plants grown
from bulblets (so definitely their first flower) which flowered immediate=ly
female (so skipped the male fase) and show that nutrition plays a very
important part in sex-change. Because of this nutrition-depency, I don't
think sexchange is that important as a diagnostic tool. The end result in
mature specimen is much more important and it is the sex of the mature
specimen that is one of the chracters reported by Murata to distinguish A.
flavum ssp. tibeticum from the other 2 ssp. Ssp. tibeticum flowers male o=r
bisexual when mature whereas the other 2 ssp. always flower bisexual when
mature.

There is however another wierd thing going on with A. flavum because I gr=ow
2 clones, with almost the same flower (color, purple blotch in throat,
size), but one clone produces recurved fruits and the other erect fruits.
This character is usually regarded as a important diagnostic tool to
discriminate between species (especially in section Sinarisaema) but in t=he
case of flavum it happens in the same species. Whether it's caused by a
genetic reason or not, I don't know but it sure is odd. And yes, both clo=nes
are pretty boring.....

>I can't swear to it, but i think I've seen A.
>tortuosum, which is monoecious, self-pollinate.

I have to agree with Jim on this one. One of my A. tortusoum has
self-pollinated itself for 2 consecutive years now with no other tortuosu=m
or related species flowering at the same time and the seeds were viable. =For
me it's a sure thing that A. tortuosum is able to self-pollinate.


Pascal