Re: Chirality

**f*@nrao.edu**

What do you find? Does the chirality differ between Northern and Southern
Hemisphere?  Tomorrow I'll forward a reference dealing with pole beans.
:-)

- Fred Schwab

> Dear Ted,
>
> Thank you for this interesting observation.  It's tempting to guess
> that it's just chance as what evolutionary advantage could right- or
> left-handedness be to a Crypt?  Given that size, color etc. are the
> same, the spathe would not be held further above the water to offer
> visual or olfactory signals any more effectively by twisting one way
> or the other.  But then who knows what happens at full moon!
>
> Let's have more of these intriguing observations!
>
> Deni Bown (still in Nigeria where no Crypts grow but from henceforth
> will be more observant with all & any aroid inflroescences)
>
> On 24 October 2011 18:46, Theodore Held <oppenhauser2001@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Dear List,
>>
>> Attached here (with luck) is a picture I made of a pair of blooms from
>> a Cryptocoryne griffithi (identity confirmed by Peter Boyce at the
>> recent IAS show). What?s interesting to me is that the outer spathe
>> tip (called the flag for Crypts) of the plants twists to the left for
>> one and to the right for the other. These plants are vegetative kin.
>>
>> I have also seen the pairing of left-handed and right-handed
>> inflorescences on Cryptocoryne pontederifolia.
>>
>> Has anyone ever noticed mirror-image flower forms like this with any
>> other aroids? In chemistry differences involving only mirror images
>> are referred to as chiral isomers and originate with subtle
>> molecular-level geometry. In normal life this is called ?handedness.?
>> In a plant bloom, the differences may display as macroscopic
>> phenomena, but likely originate with early development, also perhaps
>> on a molecular level.
>>
>> Please enlighten me if anyone knows about this oddity.
>>
>> Ted Held.
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Aroid-L mailing list
>> Aroid-L@www.gizmoworks.com
>> http://www.gizmoworks.com/mailman/listinfo/aroid-l
>>
>>
>
>
>
> --
> DENI BOWN
> Consultant
> Flora & Medicinal Plants
> International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA)
> Oyo Road
> PMB 5320
> Ibadan
> Nigeria
>
> D.Bown@cgiar.org
>
> Work: +234 2 7517472 ext 2520
> Mobile (Nigeria) +234 806 0486022
> Mobile       (UK)  +44 787 0345924
> _______________________________________________
> Aroid-L mailing list
> Aroid-L@www.gizmoworks.com
> http://www.gizmoworks.com/mailman/listinfo/aroid-l
>

_______________________________________________
Aroid-L mailing list
Aroid-L@www.gizmoworks.com
http://www.gizmoworks.com/mailman/listinfo/aroid-l