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  Need Anthurium anatomy lesson
From: Don Martinson llmen at execpc.com> on 2001.07.22 at 22:34:00(7083)
Here is a link to a photo of the spadix of my flowering Anthurium clarinervium:
http://www.execpc.com/~llmen/aclar2.jpg

I realize that this species is supposed to apomictic, but could
someone give me a brief anatomy lesson here? I can visualize white
bumps (A), yellowish bumps (B), and brownish bumps (C). I imagine
that some of these are male flowers, but are these all male, in
varying degrees of maturation? Are the male and female flowers
distributed evenly along the spadix?

Thanks,

--
Don Martinson

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From: Tom Croat Thomas.Croat at mobot.org> on 2001.07.23 at 22:45:12(7096)
Title: RE: Need Anthurium anatomy lesson

Don:

I couldn't make these out very well but I assume that all the bumps are actually pistils, not stamens.

Tom

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From: Denis denis at skg.com> on 2001.07.24 at 18:58:55(7107)
Apomixis doesn't mean the flowers aren't perfect, or that the seeds were
produced without pollenation of the flower. It just means that the
resulting seeds are produced from the mother plant's unreduced somatic
tissues. The seeds of citrus are notorius for producing apomictic
seedlings as well as sexually produced seedling making it hard to be
sure the resulting progeny were replicants of the Mother plant or a
hybrid plant which is what the breeder is looking for.

In the case of Anthurium clarinervium the flowers are perfect containing
both female and male parts and are whorled about the spadix from bottom
to top. The female parts open first starting at the base of the spadix
and moving up progrssively as several days pass. They appear as small
bumps or stalks with droplets of a viscous clear or grey liquid
(stigmatic fluid) on top when receptive. As they pass out of receptivity
and dry up the male parts appear as yellow stamens sticking out of the
spadix. No offense intended to Dr. Tom but A, B, & C all appear to me to
be various stages of the male phase. Any of the female parts would
either be at the top of the spadix or totally gone by at the time of the
photo shown.

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