My Bit of Heaven - by Kristl Walek

[Katherine J]

Kristl,
how do you test the seeds? Germination-test, or what?

[Kristl Walek]

Kathrine,
I would like to answer your germination question with some pictures, etc...will do that soon.

[Kristl Walek]

I have shown you Polygala polygama before.

It is an amphicarpic plant....and the following says it better than I ever could...

From a review in "Current Science"....

"For every 6944 species of plants whose flowers we can see and smell there is one that also produces flowers which we cannot see nor smell because the species chooses to flower underground. These species, referred to as amphicarpic, produce flowers both above-ground and below-ground and thus seem to enjoy the best of both possible worlds – the aerial and subterranean path to reproduction. These plants are unlike the groundnut plants which bear aerial flowers but develop their fruits underground. Though the frequency of the amphicarpic plants is very small constituting only about 0.0144 per cent of the flowering plant species, it has been reported to have evolved independently several times in the course of the evolution of the flowering plants. And thus, though small in frequency, this behaviour cannot be disregarded as a chance event.

Quite obviously the underground flowers in the amphicarpic plants are completely self-pollinated and the fruits and seeds are relatively protected from vagaries of climatic fluctuations and predation. On the other hand, the aerial flowers are usually cross-pollinated bringing into the amphicarpic plant the much-desired genetic variability. Despite their exciting dual flowering behaviour, there appears to be not much work done on these species. Almost nothing is known about the evolutionary significance of these flowers. What could have driven them to flower thus? All these and more questions go abegging. As the authors mention, detailed physiological, ecological and evolutionary studies are required to fully understand and appreciate the significance of the underground flowers.

Meanwhile one thing is clear about the underground flowers – they seem to have clearly chosen their stand against the servant who remarked to his queen in one of Tagore’s poem ‘I will keep fresh the grassy path where you will walk in the morning, where your feet will be greeted with praise at every step by the flowers eager for death’. The underground flowers are certainly not among those eager to shower praise and die!"


So, here are the pretty pink aerial flowers, followed by a picture of the excavated underground flowers/fruits photographed on the same day (just barely underground and attached to the maternal plant by an umbilical cord).

This all makes for a crazy, mixed up seed collecting bag when the time comes (full of soil, cleistogamous, underground "runners" -and normal green aerial seed).

And here are the heart-shaped subterranean seed pods, usually white, unless they have come a bit closer to the surface of the soil and been exposed to light.

Both the green aerial seed and the white underground seed have one seed in each of the two chambers of the heart.

[Kristl Walek]

and if there is anyone else who is as fascinated by these ideas as I am...here is the following on amphicarpic plants by Gregory Cheplick ---'Life History Evolution in Amphicarpic Plants'

"Despite substantial variation, subterranean seeds are generally heavier than aerial seeds (but fewer) and produce vigorous seedlings with high survivorship and high fitness. Adaptive advantages of subterranean seeds include retention of offspring in favorable parental microhabitats, protection of seeds from herbivory, predation, or fire, and avoidance of desiccating conditions on the soil surface ; potential disadvantages include lack of gene exchange, high energy costs, limited dispersal, and sibling competition. For the few species studied, aerial reproduction is more plastic than subterranean reproduction and more likely to be affected by environmental conditions." 

[Paul T]

Kristl,

Absolutely fascinating.  I knew there were plants that flowered and seeded underground, but didn't realise that there were plants that flowered above and below ground at the same time.  Weird!! So is the Polgala a shrub, herbaceous plant, running ground cover type thing?

[Kristl Walek]

Paul, it's a tiny, delicate, clumping, herbaceous plant.

[Paul T]

Sounds wonderful.  Unfortunately, it isn't one of the 4 Polygala species allowed into Aus through our quarantine.   There's been a few treasures that you've shown us that I'd love to have got form you, but unfortunately they aren't on the permitted list.    Then again, there are others that are just fine.  You have shown us some wonderful plants throughout this thread Kristl, so many of them new and interesting.  Thanks so much.

[Kristl Walek]

Almost all the native Trillium seed has now been collected, with only T. erectum remaining (collection times have been oddly out of their usual order this year, undoubtably because of the constant rain).

Trillium grandiflorum is my favorite in flower.
T. undulatum my favorite in fruit.

But for beauty of the fruit on its own, there is almost no other seed I collect that is as stunning as Trillium cernuum pods.

[Kristl Walek]

A few of the other berries collected yesterday:

Aralia hispida.

The tiny, hairy white berries of the equally tiny and choice Gaultheria hispidula.

Berries of Gaylussacia baccata are hard to clean as one wants to eat them all--delicious and sweet and of good size. It's known as Huckleberry.

[Lesley Cox]

I wonder was this the origin of the one cartoon character for whom I ever felt some affection, Huckleberry Hound. Certainly our own dog loves blackberries, eating them straight from the arching and very prickly stems and leaving the remaining fruit covered with saliva so that I really can't make use of them.

[Kristl Walek]

Some Solidago for Leslie....of course, the well known S. canadensis and the weediest species. It's the "large mass Solidago" and can be found covering large acreages.....many of the other species, some ridiculously well-behaved, are not in bloom yet.

Echinocystis lobata (Cucumber Weed) is a native annual tendril climber producing upright panicles of creamy-white blooms. It will climb up anything and one can see country fences and hedges entirely covered with it's frothy flowers right now. It seems to like my conifers. After flowering, it produces very interesting large prickly seed pods, with fascinating large black seeds (will show you later). Perpetuates from seed.

Coreopsis tripteris is native to the remnant prairie areas of southern Ontario. It's a tall, tall species, not immediately obvious as a Coreopsis--but one can see the genus clearly in the flowers.

And lastly, the well-known native Helenium autumnalis. I have never seen it in other than straight yellow in the wild.

[Lesley Cox]

The Solidagi is wonderful Kristl, thanks for this pic. A pic of it en masse perhaps to come...?

[Kristl Walek]

Lesley, the en-masse Solidago canadensis.

I'll try to do a survey of Solidago species as the season progresses. Some (unlike S. canadensis) I will have to hunt down.

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks Kristl, that's fantastic but omygod, it does look like some of the local paddocks where ragwort has infested.

[Lesley Cox]

Much better though, enlarged!

Your package has just arrived. You have been very generous and I send my grateful thanks. More sowing to be done this weekend.