Adventitious buds
- To: Multiple recipients of list <i*@rt66.com>
- Subject: Adventitious buds
- From: B* S* <B*@hsc.edu>
- Date: Thu, 23 Apr 1998 07:18:21 -0600 (MDT)
I imagine a similar process occurs in irises
>and may have something to do with why some rz's produce more increase
>than others. If so, I wonder if there is a finite number of advantitious
>buds which can develop and would that be 1 bud per leaf formed, as new
>increase seems to correspond to leaf growth.
>From the strictly botanical point of view, the buds that produce increase
along an iris rhizome are not adventitious. That term is reserved for a
plant organ (root, stem or leaf) that appears where it is not expected.
The buds that are activated by the death or supression of the main growing
point in a iris rhizome are exactly where we would expect them to be: one
in each leaf axil, alternating sides of the rhizome. You are probably
right, Jan, that hormones from the main growing point suppress the lateral
buds, just as happens in the trees you describe.
My students are always mixing up "adventitious" and "advantageous,"
confusion which I compound by pointing out that adventitious organs usually
ARE advantageous. But not everything that is advantageous is adventitious.
And they say botany is dry and pedantic!
Bill Shear
Department of Biology
Hampden-Sydney College
Hampden-Sydney VA 23943
(804)223-6172
FAX (804)223-6374
email<bills@hsc.edu>
