RE: [Aroid-l] Anthurium fruiting

Lynn:  You may be correct. I have never actually handled the little filaments because they are so tiny but the berries are almost universally equipped with a VERY stick mucilage on the seeds themselves which can stick to anything.  I sometimes have to lick them off my fingers and spit them out to get them onto a piece of paper.  These appendages are quite variable, sometimes on both ends, sometimes only on one end and sometimes the entire seed is enclosed in a mucilaginous sack.  The Mexican species that I know tend to have a pasty mesocarp and lack the sticky appendages as I recall, then Mexican species differ in every way from the rest of the genus.

 

Tom

 

From: aroideae@aol.com [mailto:aroideae@aol.com]
Sent: Thursday, December 29, 2005 11:19 AM
To: aroid-l@gizmoworks.com
Subject: Re: [Aroid-l] Anthurium fruiting

 

this filament of tissue on excerted berries has always been quite sticky in the Anthurium i've dealt with.  maybe it's that way so the berry sticks to a bird's beak....or my fingers.

lynn

Dear Derek:

        I believe what you are seeing is pretty universal. The inner surface of the tepals have a strip of tissue that is capable of being ripped off and this is firmly attached to the base of the berries, allowing the berries to be nicely displayed after they emerge.  I suspect that this has evolved to allow for easy dispersal by birds, surely the principal dispersal agent for Anthurium according to my observations and those of Betty Loiselle who works works with bird pollination (UMSL). I have seen species where the fruits emerge and don't hang down but I suspect that if you tugged on them slowly they might also become loosened in the same way.

Tom 

-----Original Message-----
From: Derek Burch [d*@horticulturist.com]
Sent: Monday, December 26, 2005 9:10 AM
To: 'Discussion of aroids'
Subject: [Aroid-l] Anthurium fruiting

 

One of my large birdsnest anthuriums that has not fruited before is now
giving me a beautiful mass of bright scarlet fruit. I am curious about a
phenomenon which I have seen before on other big birdsnest species, that is
that as the fruits ripen they sooner or later pop out of the matrix of the
spadix and hang on a short thread. How widespread is this through the genus?
The shape of the fruit (like a candycorn) makes it very poppable, and the
almost random ripening of the fruits dotted all over the spadix also makes
the popping more likely as the remaining fruit around any given one swell.

I don't really have questions about this, apart from wondering how
widespread it is, and also why the fruits reach maturity with no apparent
pattern and over such an extended period, but would welcome anyone's
observations or comments.

Idle thoughts for an idle day. Best wishes to everyone.

Derek

 

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