Leaflet variability in Amorphophallus konjac?

From: ken at spatulacity.com on 2003.10.06 at 15:52:43(10688) Have list members noticed much variability in the shape of Amorphophallus konjac leaflets? I got a handful of offsets from a friend, which looked like konjac (I saw the mother corm) and tossed them in with mine. Now I have a bunch of plants with significantly rounded leaflets compared with the konjacs they're growing with. They're so different that I can easily spot them amongst the 50+ offsets that I grew this year. My friend's corm flowered this spring. I've asked him to describe it and I gave him a link to the konjac page on aroid.org. He's not an aroider by nature and acquired the corm randomly from someone in the cactus club, I think. Thanks in advance, Ken Mosher

From: "Michael Marcotrigiano" mmarcotr at email.smith.edu> on 2003.10.06 at 18:54:39(10689) Different clones vary widely. My 'Leo Song Variant' is fnely cut while Tony Avent's 'Nightstick' has more 'solid' leaves. Yet within clones you see some great variability especially when they are leaves from small corms. I have a clone that I collect all the corms from and when you plant them you would think they were seedling derived in year one or two because they show great variability. In time, they all seem to merge to the same phenotype. Just my experience. +More _______________________________ Michael Marcotrigiano, Ph.D Director of the Botanic Garden and Professor of Biological Sciences Smith College Lyman Conservatory, 15 College Lane Northampton, MA 01063 email: mmarcotr@smith.edu voice: 413-585-2741; fax: 413-585-2744 www.smith.edu/garden www.science.smith.edu/~mmarcotr ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Art is the unceasing effort to compete with the beauty of flowers and never succeeding." Marc Chagall >>> ken@spatulacity.com 10/06/03 11:52AM >>> Have list members noticed much variability in the shape of Amorphophallus konjac leaflets? I got a handful of offsets from a friend, which looked like konjac (I saw the mother corm) and tossed them in with mine. Now I have a bunch of plants with significantly rounded leaflets compared with the konjacs they're growing with. They're so different that I can easily spot them amongst the 50+ offsets that I grew this year. My friend's corm flowered this spring. I've asked him to describe it and I gave him a link to the konjac page on aroid.org. He's not an aroider by nature and acquired the corm randomly from someone in the cactus club, I think. Thanks in advance, Ken Mosher

From: "Julius Boos" ju-bo at msn.com> on 2003.10.06 at 23:02:38(10690) Dear Ken, I am not an Amorphophallus grower, but think that you will find a LOT of variability in not only A. konjac leaflets, but this species as a whole. Many years ago when this list was done by snail mail, Fanny Phillips described her collection of A. konjac, she had dwarfs that bloomed small blooms the size of a white rat (photo was supplied), and giants whose bloom towered above her 6' tall husband, my friend Craig. There also was every color of petiole you could imagine, so you are in for many surprises as you obtain other clones from other sources. They are cool-growing clones, and a rarer hot-loving clone of this same species. I`ll address Michael`s letter here, he points out the vast variability within a group of plants from multiple offsets taken from the same 'mother', I keep saying you can observe super-fast 'evolution' at work in Aroids! Good Growing, Julius +More >>Have list members noticed much variability in the shape of Amorphophallus konjac leaflets? I got a handful of offsets from a friend, which looked like konjac (I saw the mother corm) and tossed them in with mine. Now I have a bunch of plants with significantly rounded leaflets compared with the konjacs they're growing with. They're so different that I can easily spot them amongst the 50+ offsets that I grew this year. My friend's corm flowered this spring. I've asked him to describe it and I gave him a link to the konjac page on aroid.org. He's not an aroider by nature and acquired the corm randomly from someone in the cactus club, I think. Thanks in advance, Ken Mosher

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