> At the moment I have several P.pumila plants in flower. One
> of these has managed to produce a flower stalk with 2
> flowers!!!! With this strange P.pumila, both flowers are
> situated at the end of the stalk and sit side by side. One
> flower is allot smaller than the other.
> Although I have seen a fair few abnormalities with
> Pinguicula flowers such as missing or extra petals, this is
> the first time I have ever seen some thing like this. I
> would be interested to hear if anyone else has seen such a
> flower.
I have observed twin flowers as an occasional biological artefact dozens of
times in almost all Eurasian Pinguicula species including P. macroceras.
There are all sorts of transitions from corolla twins with 2, 3(!) and 4
antheres and 1 or 2 seed capsules up to ramosa types with totally
bifurcated stalks. Also Casper (Ping. monography) describes 'lusus ramosus'
forms in Ping. villosa and vulgaris. This phenomenon is widespread in some
genera with axial-symmetrical flowers (e.g. Violaceae, some orchids).
Juerg
___________________________________________________
Juerg Steiger, Institut fuer Aus-, Weiter- und Fortbildung IAWF
University of Bern, Inselspital 37a, CH-3010 Bern, Switzerland
Office: +41 31 632 9887 Fax: +41 31 632 9871