The Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the Same SpeciesDarwin, Charles
Science
The Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the Same Species
Darwin, Charles
Fertilization of plants; Heterostylism; Plant physiology; Plants -- Variation; Pollination
The great difference in the fertility of the long and short-styled flowers, when
both are illegitimately fertilised, is a unique case, as far as I have observed
with heterostyled plants. The long-styled flowers when thus fertilised are
utterly barren, whilst about half of the short-styled ones produce capsules, and
these include a little above two-thirds of the number of seeds yielded by them
when legitimately fertilised. The sterility of the illegitimately fertilised
long-styled flowers is probably increased by the deteriorated condition of their
pollen; nevertheless this pollen was highly efficient when applied to the
stigmas of the short-styled flowers. With several species of Primula the short-
styled flowers are much more sterile than the long-styled, when both are
illegitimately fertilised; and it is a tempting view, as formerly remarked, that
this greater sterility of the short-styled flowers is a special adaptation to
check self-fertilisation, as their stigmas are eminently liable to receive their
own pollen. This view is even still more tempting in the case of the long-styled
form of Linum grandiflorum. On the other hand, with Pulmonaria angustifolia, it
is evident, from the corolla projecting obliquely upwards, that pollen is much
more likely to fall on, or to be carried by insects down to the stigma of the
short-styled than of the long-styled flowers; yet the short-styled instead of
being more sterile, as a protection against self-fertilisation, are far more
fertile than the long-styled, when both are illegitimately fertilised.
Pulmonaria azurea, according to Hildebrand, is not heterostyled. (3/12. ‘Die
Geschlechter-Vertheilung bei den Pflanzen’ 1867 page 37.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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