Sunday, October 4, 2009

Peloric Orchid

Every now and then one finds a Spiranthes that exhibits "peloria," a phenomenon in which a plant that normally bears irregular flowers mysteriously produces regular flowers. These flowers normally do not open but nearly always develop seed capsules. They seem cleistogamous to me. I have no expertise on this occurrence but would love to hear from anyone who does. The plant in the photo was among a large population of Spiranthes cernua in Lake County, Indiana. Photographed 10-4-09.

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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousMay 27, 2015 at 9:44 AM

    Shame no one ever commented on this. Not sure if anyone is still monitoring this question, but yes it is not uncommon for S. cernua to be cleistogamous peloric. Reproduction is apomixis (clonal through seeds).

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  2. UnknownOctober 15, 2019 at 9:45 AM

    There is also a cleistogamous Hexalectris spicata var. arizonica

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