In a message dated 12/24/2005 11:01:15 AM Central Standard Time, pbs-request@lists.ibiblio.org writes: What comes to mind is cauliflorous plants (jackfruit), repeat flowering on a spur (apples I can't remember the term), subterranean flowering (a few orchids), and amphigeal plants that flower from the roots and from the stems. Hi Gang, Wow! What a question; it is four questions in one! :-) A. I cannot begin to "know" the true answer. But, in the case of cauliflorous plants I will propose a hypothesis. I propose that the system is essentially the same as in typical plants (where FT and FD) get together in the apical meristem (the shoot tip). B. However, there are several variations that could occur: 1. The flower buds could be formed many, many years before they mature in a plant like jackfruit and then do into a deep dormancy. It is only later, when some additional mechanism (in addition to FT and FD) removes the dormancy that the tiny floral buds could mature. 2. Or, perhaps, if the system is essentially the same (FT and FD controlling flower bud formation), it is possible that cells in the vascular cambium or cork cambium, etc., begin to make some FD years after the shoot tip has grown much higher (many feet higher). The FT could diffuse throughout the whole plant and then those few trunk cells that are making FD could initiate floral genesis. C. Of course, you could propose that FT and FD are not involved in cauliflory, and that another mechanism activates flower bud formation. In either event, you can see that some mechanism will be needed to assist in pushing a flower though the bark of a jackfruit tree. D. Finally, if you think about it, this hypothesis (a second floral meristem in some other part of the plant) could explain the production of flowers from many tissues, including roots, etc. Spur flowering could fit in easily enough with the knowledge that a spur is really nothing more than a very, very short shoot--so it will have a meristem making FD that is ready to dance with FT (presumably). E. Subterranean flowering could involve many things, but the easiest explanation (barring anatomical evidence to the contrary) is that underground flowers are also produced in the same way (FT and FD), and that the shoot tip involved is an underground shoot tip. F. The real trick to understanding plants to imagine that they have very few parts, and almost everything you see (no matter what is looks like) is a variation upon these few parts: shoot tip, buds, shoots (including the different layers), leaves (including petioles and leaf hairs), and roots. Of course, when you move up to woody plants, there are a few more concepts but (to me) they are really just derivatives of the same few parts. So, I see plants as having the potential for "shoot tips" in almost any place, even though the "typical" plant doesn't usually have such an arrangement. By shoot tip, I mean apical meristem-like: groups of cells that can turn into buds, shoots, leaves, and roots. LINK: Califlorous Plants http://waynesword.palomar.edu/plmay99.htm Cordially, Conroe Joe