Re: Ping theories
Robert Allen (Robert.Allen@Eng.Sun.COM)
Thu, 17 Mar 1994 09:07:54 +0800
>>I had also been thinking about how boreal Pings produce hibernacula
>>(winter resting buds) and how at this time of the year they often
>>produce gemmae buds as well. I was thinking that I don't recall ever
>>having seen a plant produce these gemmae buds if the plant was grown from
>>seed and had not yet flowered for the first time. In other words, flowering
>>seems to be a prerequisite for gemmae production. Since gemmae buds
>>probably form from axillary buds, would it make sense that when a Ping
>>germinates, there is so much apical dominance from the auxin at the
>>apical meristem that there is no or little chance of gemmae production,
>>but then after flowering, apical dominance is lost, an axillary bud
>>starts up new rosette growth, and at the same time gemmae bud growth
>>is initiated.
>>
>>This is a far more interesting idea to me than what is probably really
>>going on i.e. flowering and gemmae production are both symptoms of a
>>mature plant, and there is no further relationship between these two
>>activities.
Certainly it would be difficult to differentiate
the two cases... FYI, my P. moranensis `G' and
P. x Sethos both only divided after flowering.
On the other hand my putative P. rotundiflora is
blooming even though it's REALLY small. I have one
flower on it. The info I have on this specis is
that the pedicel is glabrous, short (?) spur, round
flower (are the petals round or the whole flower?).
My plant has a short spur, dark purple heavily veining
at the base of the flower near the spur, a fairly wide
opening to the innards of the flower (more like a United
States ping than say, P. moranensis), a symmetrical and
rather regular petal arrangement, and the petals are two
colored, light pink (I'm color blind) up front and merging
to near purple back further. The beard is slightly
excerted, fuzzy, and of a sort of creamy bluish-purple.
Does this sound like P. rotundiflora?
Robert