fertilization mystery (?)

[Jim McClements, Dover, DE z6]

In a message dated 7/26/05 4:31:14 PM, marylamb at MSN.COM writes:


> A little later, in another part of the garden, A.
> tortuosum appeared with plenty of leaves but only one inflorescence. Now
> both A. concinnum and A. tortuosum have fruiting spikes.
>
> I didn't inspect the spadix on any of these plants, but I can imagine the
> smaller of the two A. concinnum would have been the pollen source in that
> case. What about A. tortuosum? Is that species regularly self-fertilizing?
> (Is this apt to be one of those "false pregnancies" described in the
> Gusmans' book?)
>

Mary

If you look in the Gusman book, p 391, you'll see that A tortuosum is one of
the species that can be bisexual. If it's not male, I believe that it always
has both sexes on the spadix, never just female.

Jim



Jim McClements
50 S. Prestwick Ct.
Dover, Delaware 19904, USA
Zone 7a
302-734-2836
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