[aroid-l] Arisaema Seeds

From: ggusman ggusman at ulb.ac.be> on 2002.08.29 at 11:39:18(9314) > I have an Arisaema which has set seed this season. As I have only 1 plant > of this species would I be correct in assuming the seeds are hybrid? Or are > Ariseamas able to pollinate themselves? > Thanks > Frank Wolpert +More True or almost true. Most plants - except A. flavum - are unable to pollinate themselves. Indeed they are either male or female, or, in bisexual spadices, pollen is often not ripe at the time ovaries are receptive. Sometimes, however, a fruit is produced, wich usually doesn't ripe and the peduncle falls down before berries are getting red. Nevertheless, if berries seem to ripe and seeds are produced, these use to be sterile. Sometimes, however, fertile seeds are set, even in purely female spadices and without crossing (apomixis). It's truly exceptional and I only noticed that once in more than ten years of observation - I am sure that, at the time a female spadix was present on a very early flowering form of Arisaema consanguineum, no other arisaema was in flower in my garden. In most cases, in the situation you describe, hybridization can be suspected. Guy Gusman

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