Re: [Aroid-l] Am. titanum 'ghost' and titanum seedling questions

From: piaba piabinha at yahoo.com> on 2005.06.13 at 15:43:32(13005) hello paul, my one reaction to your post is that in the past i have been surprised to find changes in tuber size (growth) and even its position in the pot, changes that occurred while the plants were supposedly dormant, with no above ground growth. this occurred with a Taccarum and some Dioscoreas. that to me suggests that while plants seem to be dormant (because there's no green growth), sometimes the tuber is actively still metabolizing and growing underground. is this possible or am i imagining things? wishing you a speedy recovery, tsuh yang +More --- Paul Tyerman wrote: > A few years ago however I had an experience that > shows this is not always > the case. I sowed 6 seedlings of a rather uncommon > plant called Rigidella > orthantha (family Iridaceae) and every one of them > shot pure white > shoots. I asked on one of the bulb lists and was > told that there was > little hope of there being any future for them so I > didn't hope much for > any return. They grew for a few months but at no > time was there even a > suggestion of green as far as I could tell, so when > they died down I > expected that to be the end of those seedlings. > I was somewhat surprised the following year when > green growth appeared in > the pots. I had had 6 white shoots from the 6 seeds > the first year but I > had 11 (or was it twelve?) green shoots appear in > the pot the following > season. They were perfectly normal green and have > grown quite happily > since then, which I can't explain at all given the > experiences of most > people with no chlorophyll in germinated seedlings. > Not only had they > returned but as far as I can tell they multiplied > during their first > growing season as well. I do not understand how > this is possible given the > lack of chlorophyll but obviously there was some > food being produced > somewhere in the process, enough to form 2 bulbs for > each shoot. Rigidella > seed are quite small as well, so I think it is > unlikely that food reserves > in the seed could have contributed much in the way > of oomph to the new > seedlings. __________________________________ Discover Yahoo! Have fun online with music videos, cool games, IM and more. Check it out! http://discover.yahoo.com/online.html _______________________________________________ Aroid-l mailing list Aroid-l@gizmoworks.com http://www.gizmoworks.com/mailman/listinfo/aroid-l

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