Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2000 16:57:22 -0700 From: Ivan Snyder <bioexp@juno.com> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg2533$foo@default> Subject: re: Transexual Nepenthes
>female is stressed hard enough, she will
>produce male flowers
>Sean
>In what species you have really _SEEN_ this
>sex conversion?
>Hermann
Hey guys, Ivan here,
What Sean is saying makes sense to me. There is a short article with
photo in CPN Dec. 1985 News & Views by Bruce Lee Bednar about a Nepenthes
mirabilis having both male and female flowers on one plant, so it is
possible. I have read about work done with Cannabis (another dioecious
plant), where if a female plant is stressed, it can be made to produce
male flowers. Such a plant when self pollinated does produce only female
and hermaphrodite seed. So, I think experimentation into this matter
seems worthwhile with Nepenthes.
Another plant that is dioecious is the Beach Strawberry (Fragaria
chiloensis). It is believed that this plant can be dioecious since it is
an octoploid (having 8 sets of chromosomes) and so holds both a complete
set of male and female chromosomes. I remember someone once writing that
Nepenthes with its 80 chromosomes is an octoploid. This person [ hi Jan,
--touche! ] also felt that this was proof that Nepenthes and Drosera were
kin because they share the same basic number. I don't buy that one.
Ivan Snyder
Hermosa Beach
California
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