Gel surrounding seeds.

From: "Julius Boos" <ju-bo at email.msn.com> on 1998.08.16 at 20:02:05(2539) Dear Friends, Just a post to add (maybe) to our overall knowledge of these plants that we are obsessed by! You may have read a posting by myself from late 1997 (I have to try to find it to get the date) where I floated the fruit of two mature (ripe) infructesences of Lasimorpha senegalensis in a bowl of water with a pinch of the fungicide "Captan", so that I could observe the ongoing development of the spines on outer seed coat as the seed continued development after the fruits dropped off the spadix. There has been some speculation as to the function of the gel or jelly that swells/develops around the seeds of this group of Aroids (when they come in contact with water), and around the seeds of other genera such as Anthurium. Some suggested that it served as a "glue" which helped the seed adhere to the bills of birds feeding on the ripe fruits and then to stick the seeds to the tree branches, other ideas were that the gel may inhibit or at least slow germination, or may act as a moisting agent to the seed. Well, we may be able to now delete the inhibition factor, as I just carefully opened the "skin" of the last seemingly fresh fruit, as basically I became tired of water changes (the last fruit that showed signs of deterioration previous to this one was two weeks ago, and it was "opened" to reveal two good seeds with full development of the external spines) and this last fruit contained a germinated seedling contained within this still-seemingly perfect fruit "skin"! This little seedling was tightly coiled, roots, two (maybe more?)leaves, seed and all, and when I placed it in a new bowl of water, a large "blob" of the gel formed around it! I just thought that a few of us may be interested to read about the length of time the fruit remained alive and viable in water with a pinch of "Captan", and the observation re: the germination with the gel present. Cheers, Julius +More ju-bo@msn.com

From: Sue Zunino <suez at northcoast.com> on 1998.08.17 at 23:12:46(2540) Julius and All, I doubt this will add anything to our knowledge of these great plants, but I floated an infructescence of Lysichiton Americanum in water leaving the gel which developed, in with the fruits. Over a period of 6 months, the majority of the seeds sprouted, gel intact. I never changed the water, but only added. Not knowing much about much, I would have ruled out the purpose for gel as an inhibitor. The gel produced by Lysichiton seemed to show up outside the seed skin. There's so much I don't remember now, but I wanted to find out both how long the seeds would be viable in water, as well as if the gel would prevent germination. However, I'm not sure if the fact that they germinated in the gel-water is proof enough. I'm not a scientist nor do I exihibit good habits when it comes to documentation, neither am I very observent, but still I thought I'd throw that out for thought, Sue Zunino

From: Sue Zunino <suez at northcoast.com> on 1998.08.17 at 23:20:04(2541) Julius and All again, I have another thought on the gel function. I noticed that when Lysichiton becomes ripe, the ground around the plant is not exactly wet, in fact it is dry at the surface. My impression was that the gel might be a prolonger of moisture around the seeds allowing them time to germinate and extend a root past the dry condition at the surface. Does this sound at all reasonable? The infructescenciii which fell to the ground, turned into a pile of slimy mush and stayed wet for quite awhile. I'd be curious to know if the conditions around Lasimorpha are similar when they drop their fruit. Just speculating, Sue Z.

From: alistair_hay_at_po-sydney at rbgsyd.gov.au on 1998.08.18 at 03:04:30(2543) The only time I have seen Lasimorpha in the wild (in Liberia), it was fruting while growing in a few feet of water. Maybe the gel has something to do with protecting the seeds as they pass through birds' guts - perhaps its an emetic. It occurs in Cyrtosperma (bird dispersed, probably), but also in Lasia (L. spinosa probably not bird-dispersed - the fruits are green and more or less leathery). Who knows...... Alistair Hay +More ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ Subject: Re: Gel surrounding seeds. Author: at mailgate Date: 8/17/98 6:21 PM Julius and All again, I have another thought on the gel function. I noticed that when Lysichiton becomes ripe, the ground around the plant is not exactly wet, in fact it is dry at the surface. My impression was that the gel might be a prolonger of moisture around the seeds allowing them time to germinate and extend a root past the dry condition at the surface. Does this sound at all reasonable? The infructescenciii which fell to the ground, turned into a pile of slimy mush and stayed wet for quite awhile. I'd be curious to know if the conditions around Lasimorpha are similar when they drop their fruit. Just speculating, Sue Z.

Note: this is a very old post, so no reply function is available.