Thanks Leo! I greatly appreciate the info here. I was just thinking I should learn more about botany. -Elaine. On Thu, Apr 16, 2020 at 9:35 AM oooOIOooo via pbs < pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> wrote: > -- > > > Are garlicules= bulblets and carpules= cloves of garlic? Do you consume > the bulblets or are those meant for planting? > > "Garlicule" is a jocular novodixi. "Carpule" of "carpel" are botanical > terms for the structure containing the egg or eggs. After fertilization it > usually grows larger as the seed or seeds develop. Most plants have more > than one carpel per flower. They are attached together in such a way most > people would not notice they are separate structures without looking > carefully. When the attached carpules mature and dry they are referred to > colloquially as "seed pods." The botanical term for a seed pod is "fruit." > > Monocots, including garlic, and almost all the plants we like to talk > about here, normally have three carpels per flower. If you've ever looked > at the fruits of Gladiolus, garlic, freesias, lilies, Agave or Yucca you > will probably notice they have three longitudinal parts. They often come > apart at these seams, revealing the seeds in the three parts of the fruit. > The botanical term for seed pods coming apart is "dehiscence." The way seed > pods come apart is often used to differentiate species in other parts of > the plant world, but almost all (all? I haven't met all of them) monocots > have dehiscence along the seams separating the original carpules. > > Other plants have differing numbers of carpels. Milkweeds and oleanders > have two. The rose family, including things like apples, pears, stone > fruits and berries, has five carpules. They're not easy to see because they > are so well fused, and the true fruit is buried deeply inside the part we > eat. When you cut an apple or pear, the woody section inside containing the > seeds is the fruit. The yummy part is extremely modified stem that grows > around the fruit. This protects it and attracts seed dispersing animals. > > Anyway... An allium inflorescence (garlic, chives, onions, etc.) contains > many small flowers. Normally each will produce a small 3-part carpel > containing several black seeds at maturity. My particular garlic variety, > however, did not produce any carpules. Instead it produced what appears to > me to be one very small bulb in the place of each fruit. I jokingly > referred to them as garlicules, derived from an elision of garlic and > carpule; that was incorrect; the proper term would be garlifruits. I'm too > lazy to peel tiny little bulbs like that, but I'm pretty sure they're > edible. > > Producing plants rather than fruits is not limited to alliums. Some agaves > do this. Agave plantlets formed from flowers are referred to as bulbils. > Agave rosettes die after flowering. Through bulbil production a dying plant > can produce progeny even if not pollinated, and get another chance at > genetic recombination. When this happens there is usually one Agave bulbil > per carpel, or three per flower. Many bulbils proliferate further on the > inflorescence, so one can get tens of thousands of bulbils per > inflorescence. Some species, like Agave murpheyi or A. angustifolia v. > tequilana (previously A. tequilana) almost never produce seed, only > bulbils. Other species, like A. gypsophila and A. vilmoriniana, produce > seeds when pollinated and bulbils when not pollinated. > > People have selected special varieties of useful plants over the > millennia. Useful plants easy to propagate are even more desirable. With > normal garlic, at the end of the growing season, the bulb system (what we > call head) of one plant can be divided into 7-15 individual bulbs (cloves) > for next year. But that means people can't eat the cloves set aside for > planting. This garlic produces hundreds of tiny bulbs. Not only can people > eat the whole head, saving only the tiny bulbs for next year, but this > variety produces hundreds of propagules, not just 7-15. (A propagule is a > piece of plant that will grow into a whole plant.) > > Similarly with Agave: Many species were food or fiber plants in the > American Southwest and Mesoamerica. From seed to flowering is 10-25, or > more, years. I have flowered A. murpheyi from a bulbil in less than 10 > years. A plant producing bulbils will be much easier and quicker to > propagate than one that needs to be raised from seed. I believe all the > dozen or so known food agaves produce bulbils instead of seeds. Almost all > useful agaves that were cultivated also have prodigious basal offsetting, > which makes propagation even easier. > > Leo Martin > Phoenix Arizona USA > Zone 9? > > -- > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net > http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… > _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…