Re: Contractile roots

From: "Don Bittel" <dbittel at treco.net> on 1997.09.08 at 13:13:01(1182) Mike, My theory is that Amorphophallus do not have contractile roots. Instead, the rotting away of the old tuber allows the new tuber to 'fall' into the hole that is left, thus lowering the tuber deeper each time. This allows it to stabilize itself better as it grows larger and larger. I have noticed this on all of my species when I used to dig them up every winter. They got so deep that now I just leave them in the ground. In this part of Florida we rarely get a hard freeze anyway. There must be some stopping point to this, however, or it could eventually sink down to the water table and rot away! I would be happy to hear from Wilbert or anyone else on this subject also. +More ---------- > From: Mike Bordelon > To: dbittel@treco.net > Subject: Contractile roots > Date: Wednesday, September 03, 1997 7:30 PM > > Hello everybody, > A recent discussion on AEG about contractile roots on > Arisaemas prompted this question. I dug Amorphophallus > muelleri from a bed yesterday and they appeared to be at the > same depth of planting. I know they have roots that emerge > from the top to stabilize the plant, but do Amorphophallus > also have contractile roots to pull them further into the soil ? > > Mike Bordelon >

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