Abstract
THE observations of Burrows and Hobbs (preceding communication) direct attention again to one of the peculiarities of the New Zealand flora. As far back as 1880, Thomson1 had observed that “species, genera and families which are characterized by hermaphrodite flowers in other parts are frequently unisexual here”. Later work has brought to light a number of examples of gynodiœcy and other sex forms in New Zealand plants that were unknown to Thomson. In December 1961 I noted another in Ranunculus, a genus in which gynodiœcism had not hitherto been reported. A large colony of R. limosella F. Muell. ex Kirk consisting of many thousands of plants occupying several acres of the dried-up bed of Lake Forsyth on the Banks Peninsula was inspected and a pad of the lake mud was removed to observe the plants in detail. Some of the flowers in this sample were without stamens, and observations over the next few days on freshly opened flowers established that some purely female plants were present with the normal hermaphrodite form. A week later, the site was revisited with Dr. E. J. Godley and a search was made for female plants. None was found until the site of the original sample was rediscovered. At this point there was a small colony of female plants. It is evident that the proportion of female plants in the Lake Forsyth population as a whole was extremely small. A search for female plants in other localities established their presence over a wide area in Canterbury so that gynodiœcism appears to be a normal feature of this species.
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References
Thomson, G. M., Trans. N.Z. Inst., 13, 241 (1880).
Parsons, P. A., Nature, 181, 1673 (1958).
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MELVILLE, R. Gynodiœcy in New Zealand Gentiana. Nature 203, 204 (1964). https://doi.org/10.1038/203204a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/203204a0
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