Betr: Climate and Growing Arisaema

[pbruggeman at TISCALI.NL]

Dear Ray,

Emerging times probably depend on so many factors that it is hard to tell
which factor is the dominant one and even then it might vary from year to
year which factor dominates. Growing conditions as a result of the local
climate should be an important one but clonal dependency is just as important
(or even more important), certainly for the species with a more widespread
distribution like Guy rightfully pointed out in his book. Griffithii in N
Sikkim flowers in very dry soil with no rain prior to the monsoon, griffithii
from S Sikkim is subject to afternoon mists and light rainshowers prior to
the monsoon and the 2 habitats are only 150 km apart from eachother. Both
flower at the same time and look approximately the same. Even things like
a warm autumn the year before will have a different effect on the emerging
times than a colder one.

As a pot-grower I know that clones of the same species can react differently
and break dormancy at different times, I can see that in the fridge. However
some plants will break dormancy every year at the same time irrespective
of the time they have been in the fridge or the temperature in the fridge
whereas others don't and don't follow any pattern. Climate from the place
of origin in combination with the grower's local climate seems to be the
most important factor but I am sure there must be many more and general rules
are useless for most species. Seed-grown plants can even flower at different
times than their parents just because they are used to the local conditions
whereas the parents will be stuck in their original pattern of their native
habitat. Call it an internal clock. I should only worry if a species hasn't
come up two months after I expected it (but than it is probably dead anyway....)

Pascal


>-- Oorspronkelijk bericht --
>Date:         Tue, 17 Jun 2003 02:10:19 +0200
>Reply-To:     "Arisaema Enthusiast Group (AEG) Discussion List (and other
>hardy              Aroids)" <ARISAEMA-L at NIC.SURFNET.NL>
>From:         "George R. Stilwell, Jr." <GRSJr at WORLDNET.ATT.NET>
>Subject:      Climate and Growing Arisaema
>To:           ARISAEMA-L at NIC.SURFNET.NL
>
>
>The following idea was sent to me by Ann Kline and I find it interesting.
Perhaps it will interest y'all too.

Guy, I think you might find it an interesting hypothesis.

.......................................

I have been reading with interest
>ll of the correspondence on the
emergence of arisaemas.  I am sure if anyone would take the time to
study a little climatology they would find that the emergence of the
temperate arisaemas most likely corresponds to the beginning of the
rainy seaso
>/ monsoon.

The first rainy season of the year in Japan is
February where it begins to rain after a dry fall and winter similar to
our continental climate in the middle South,
the SE Asian monsoon begins
in April/May on the eastern part of the mo
>soon region in SE Asia
and in the western part in late May and June after an equally dry winter.

My triphyllum don't come up until the middle of April and the other U.S.
species from the Central U.S. not until a little later when the mid west
war
>s up.  Climatology has always been of interest to me since my father
was the chief engineer of the Weather Bureau when I was growing up.

Ann Kline
........................................

I wonder if there is a corelation between the Asian spec
>es emergence times
and the climate where they originated.

Ray