|
| Several weeks ago, I posted my hypothesis that passiflora seeds were designed to germinate well only after passing through the intestinal tract of some animal such as a raccoon or a possum. The idea met resistance.
Well, more or less by accident, on the Internet I found a master's thesis written at the University of Canterbury, a New Zealand school. The investigator studied the banana passionflower, P. mollissima (sp?); it has become an invasive weed in that country. One discovery was that, after being eaten by pigs or possums, the recovered seed had a germination rate of around 50%!!! You gotta admire the devotion of that graduate student, sifting through pig feces to recover seeds! Glad that was not my thesis... though I did work in an area that still had land mines about (the Sinai). |
Follow-Up Postings:
|
- Posted by passionflow 8b (My Page) on Thu, Sep 25, 08 at 16:11
| Hi An interesting study but they say that ''Seeds germinated readily in all treatments, with no significant difference between cleaned and fleshy seeds, so seeds do not require frugivore (fruit eater) handling to germinate.'' The implication however which they note is that controlling pig and possum distribution may prevent the spread of the plant as it does not seem to be spread by birds. Myles |
Here is a link that might be useful: Passiflora seed information
Please Note: Only registered members are able to post messages to this forum. If you are a member, please log in. If you aren't yet a member, join now!
Return to the Passiflora Forum
Instructions
- You must be a registered member and logged in to post messages on our forums.
- Posting is a two-step process. Once you have composed your message, you will be taken to the preview page. You will then have a chance to review the contents and make changes.
- After posting your message, you may need to refresh the forum page in order to see it.
- It is illegal to post copyrighted material without the owner's consent.
- HTML codes are allowed in the message field only.
- No advertising is allowed in any of the forums.
- If you would like to practice posting or uploading photos, please visit our Test forum.
- If you need assistance, please Contact Us and we will be happy to help.