Lycoris season 2 - L. lomgituba
James Waddick (Wed, 11 Aug 2010 17:06:00 PDT)

This is well-known in both Hemerocallis and Clivia. It is
"polytepalism" (I guess you could call it) and one or more entire
sectors of the flower, in all 4 whorls, are duplicated -- stigma
lobe, ovary locule, stamens, petal, and sepal.

It is genetically quite distinct from doubles in which whorls 3
(stamens) and/or 4 (pistil) are converted partly or entirely to
petals.

Dear Jim S,
Good point. I agree these are multipetalled, rather than
'true' doubles, but the only multipetal Lycoris I can recall is the
double radiata and no other multipetals.

I wonder how many bulbous genera have BOTH true doubles AND
multipetal forms. Any guesses?

Does anyone need definitions of multipetal versus double?

Best Jim W.

Some general definitions - but there are many exceptions, variations
and unique examples -

Single Flowers -Those with a standard set of floral parts - 6 petals,
or 3 standards and 3 falls, 6 tepals etc for that variety of plant.
Full sexual parts.

Semidouble Flowers - Those with more than the standard number of
floral parts and some of the sexual parts missing and transformed
into petal - like structures. May or may not be fertile.

Double Flowers - Those in which all flower parts are transformed into
petals or petal-like structures. No sexual parts. Infertile.

Multipetal - Flowers that have extra parts such as 8 instead of 6
petals, extra sexual parts, extra stigmas etc. These can vary from
just a few extra petals to many, but flower parts are usually
identifiable without transformation into petaloids. aka polypetalous
--
Dr. James W. Waddick
8871 NW Brostrom Rd.
Kansas City Missouri 64152-2711
USA
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