Erythronium seed dispersal
Jane McGary (Mon, 16 Mar 2015 11:00:46 PDT)

My apology for misremembering and misspelling some of the details of
the Rock Garden Quarterly article on the above subject. I think that,
given the nature of the author's correspondence, it must have been a
case of traumatic repressed memory.

The correct spelling of the term for ant dispersal is myrmecochory.

The western American Erythronium species' seeds do not have
elaiosomes. However, when one looks at a native population of them,
they are rather evenly spread out in an area, so the seeds are being
dispersed some distance from the parent plants by some mechanism. One
correspondent suggested caching by voles; however, the presence of
voles in this region often works against the presence of bulbs, which
are a favorite food of the animals, and germination from vole or
mouse caches is likely to produce close clusters of seedlings.

Species flowering here today: Erythronium hendersonii, E.
grandiflorum, E. oreganum, E. multiscapideum, E. citrinum.

Jane McGary
Portland, Oregon, USA