That is what I meant.
>How is this supported as opposed to _Pinguicula_ producing solitary terminal
>flowers from the axils of cauline leaves? (I would guess it is supported by
>a need to correlate with other Lentibulariaceae inflorescence types
This was the direction of my rumination, indeed.
>, but if
>Lentibulariaceae displays racemes, cymes, and panicles, is a solitary terminal
>flower too far-fetched?).
No, this would certainly not be too far-fetched, and I do not know if my
evidence will satisfy you completely:
If the flowering rosette is examined carefully, one can see a switch of
rosette type ("winter->summer" or "summer->winter") to occur in which the
new rosette is not produced from the apex of the old one but rather in the
axil of a leaf. Thus, the new rosette is actually a side branch (and *not*
the continuation) of the old main axis. This is also the moment when new
secondary rosettes or hibernacula ("summer->winter", only) may be formed
from the axils of basal rosette leaves. Thus, flowering time is a moment of
enhanced branching of the whole rosette.
Now we might ask why.
With my runination, I have a (hopefully plausible) theory:
As the "raceme" is a stem giving rise only to flowers (=side branches) it
ends with a dormant and eventually aborting (!) terminal bud. Thus, it
cannot continue to produce rosette leaves and develop the new rosette from
its apex. Rather, a leaf produces the new rosette in its axil. As this
involves a breakdown of the apical dominance (as soon as the apical
meristem of the "raceme" aborts), enhanced branching of the main axis is
stimulated.
However, there are also good reasons for assuming _Pinguicula_ to have
single flowers in a mode as suggested above. E.g. _Limosella_, a genus of
Scrophulariaceae and possibly with common ancestor with Lentibulariaceae,
has solitary flowers on long pedicels from the axils of cauline leaves. I
think, but I have to look that up to be sure, no correlation between leaf
clustering (no real rosettes are formed) and flowering can be observed
here.
Kind regards
Jan
PS: Maybe we should switch our morphological discussion to private email, I
fear some cp subscribers are pretty annoyed by bracts, bracteoles,
pedicels, peduncles, petioles, axes and axils, already.