CULT: pod infertility... check?

I'm bored again.

I had cut my stalk of  RETURNING CHAMELEON the other evening before the
predicted 28 degrees overnight and stuck it in some water just so that the
blooms could finish up.  When it first opened, while still on the plant, in
80 degree weather, I had selfed it, just to see if I could get some seeds
because I want to do a seed study.  What a difference a week makes.

Anyway the terminal bloom has faded away and it looks like it might have
been trying to set the pod, so now I'm wondering if it will be able to go on
and set the pod now that it has been cut off... maybe a potato?

Well, I had also selfed the second bloom, just for the seeds, not
particularly to breed for anything, so I decided to cut the ovary of the
second bloom down and disect it.  Now I'm sure I'm not the only one who has
ever done this, but I was surprised to find actual seed structure inside.
(as I'm writing this I'm thinking 'duh there's a reason it's called an ovary
and not a uterus)  So, for comparison I disected the ovary of another spent
bloom that I didn't attempt to fertilize, and found the same thing inside.

But I started wondering about pod infertile plants.  I mean, I've heard many
people say this cv or that cv is pod infertile, so I 'know' that there are
such things.  Do those that are pod infertile produce ovaries that could be
disected to show the seed structures?  Would they simply have a
signifigantly reduced number of ovum inside?  Would they be a more solid
structure that didn't have any seed chamber?

Does anybody know?  Will I be disecting everything that grows in my iris bed
on into the next millenium?  Why do they call it Rocky Road when everything
in it just gets slimy when it melts?

Christian
ky

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