Fertilization & pedicel elongation in xAmaryllis

Ken kjblack@pacbell.net
Sat, 18 Sep 2010 09:29:20 PDT
I made an observation on many of my xAmaryllis belladonnas (w/Brunsvigia heritage) while walking through the garden this morning ... it appears that the pedicels of flowers VERY successfully fertilized, ie, the capsules are bulging with MANY seeds, elongate the most, while the pedicels of those only 'partially' fertilized (with apparently only one or two seeds) elongate comparatively less.  The shortest pedicels ... with little or no elongation, appear where fertilization and capsule development failed altogether.   This also seems true, for the most part, with my ordinary A.belladonnas.
 
The pedicels of my Brunsvigia josephinae and B.litoralis, on the other hand, all seem to elongate without respect to fertilization ... often forming capsules merely full of air where fertilization did not occur. 
 
This also appears to be the case with the Boophone disticha and the xBoopharyllis in my garden ... although they all seem to elongate to a certain degree ... the pedicels of successfully fertilized flowers did so the most.      
 
Have others noticed this habit or am I merely imagining such?
 
Ken Blackford
San Diego
 


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