A reader sent me this photo of a bloom stalk on their unidentified Hippeastrum.
That sure looks like the plant is building full-sized leaves under the flower buds. I did an image search that turned up a few sort of similar things, but I didn't find any photos that showed anything quite as large and leaf-like as this. Most of the Hippeastrum photos out there don't show anything remotely leaf-like at all.
So I guess the question for readers is just, what exactly is going on here? I know what it looks like -- it looks like this plant is trying to build a plantlet on its bloom stalk, like it's a Phalaenopsis or Agave or something -- but that's not something Hippeastrum actually does, is it?
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1 comment:
TtBoMK, no, hippies don't keiki on their flower stalks. And even if the occasionally did, I don't think it would look like that. Though I could easily be wrong, I suspect it's result of an error in the stalk's "blueprints"/construction. Flowers, as I know you know, are essentially just modified leaves. Errors in the blueprints or the reading thereof can result in leaves being made rather then floral parts. In this particular case, it appears that during stalk formation, an error orrured in the development of the bracts/sheath that would normally have enveloped the buds. Interesting little glitch.
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