Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
nancyanne_2010

Carob seedlings

nancyanne_2010
13 years ago

Is there a way to determine the sex of my carob seedlings (Ceratonia siliqua) before they mature and flower?

Comments (3)

  • ronalawn82
    13 years ago

    nancyanne, as far as I know, the carob is monoecious - it bears separate male and female flowers on the same plant. The dioecious plant bears either male-only flowers or female-only flowers. Myristica fragrans (nutmeg) is a dioecious plant and in the old days, planting the crop was like "Russian Roulette" - you found out what you had much too late. Nowadays, grafting techniques have taken much of the "trial and error" approach out of such undertakings.

  • nancyanne_2010
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    The carob is a dioecious with only some trees being hermaphroditic

  • ronalawn82
    13 years ago

    nancyanne, I understand that the tree bearing both male and female flowers but either one sex is suppressed or the sexes mature at differing times. I suppose that this means that the tree may not bear fruit. I have very little experience of the spp. but I found this article which might interest you.
    American Journal of Botany © 1992 Botanical Society of America.

    Abstract
    The flowers of Ceratonia siliqua, an anomalous caesalpinioid legume in the tribe Cassieae, are unusual in being unisexual and in lacking petals. Inflorescence development, organogeny, and flower development are described for this species. All flowers are originally bisexual, but one sex is suppressed during late development of functionally male and female flowers. Ceratonia siliqua is highly plastic in sexuality of individuals, inflorescence branching pattern, racemose or cymose inflorescences, bracteole presence, terminal flower presence, organ number per whorl, missing floral organs, pollen grain form, and carpel cleft orientation. Order of initiation is: five sepals in helical order, then five stamens in helical order together with the carpel. Each stamen is initiated as two alternisepalous primordia that fuse to become a continuous antesepalous ridge; in some flowers, the last one or two stamens of the five may form as individual antesepalous mounds. Petal rudiments are occasional in mature flowers. Position of organs is atypical; the median sepal is on the adaxial side in Ceratonia, rather than abaxial as in most other caesalpinioids. This feature in Ceratonia may be viewed as a link to subfamily Mimosoideae, in which this character state is constant. .Want the full article?
    Login to access JSTOR, or check our access options. You may have access for free through one of the participating libraries and institutions.

    Publisher Sales Service

    for $10.00 USD.
    Enter your token or email if you've already purchased this article.

    .JSTOR is part of ITHAKA, a not-for-profit organization helping the academic community use digital technologies to preserve the scholarly record and to advance research and teaching in sustainable ways.
    Terms and Conditions : Privacy Policy : Accessibility
    ©2000-2010 ITHAKA. All Rights Reserved. JSTOR®, the JSTOR logo, and ITHAKA® are registered trademarks of ITHAKA.

0
Sponsored
Ferguson Bath, Kitchen & Lighting Gallery
Average rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars233 Reviews
Ferguson Bath, Kitchen & Lighting Gallery
More Discussions