Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of contributors
- 1 Factors influencing the germination and storage characteristics of orchid pollen
- 2 Effect of temperature and moisture content on the viability of Cattleya aurantiaca seed
- 3 Asymbiotic germination of epiphytic and terrestrial orchids
- 4 Germination and mycorrhizal fungus compatibility in European orchids
- 5 Host–fungus relationships in orchid mycorrhizal systems
- 6 The effects of the composition of the atmosphere on the growth of seedlings of Cattleya aurantiaca
- 7 Orchid propagation by tissue culture techniques – past, present and future
- 8 Population biology and conservation of Ophrys sphegodes
- 9 Predicting population trends in Ophrys sphegodes Mill.
- 10 Predicting the probability of the bee orchid (Ophrys apifera) flowering or remaining vegetative from the size and number of leaves
- 11 British orchids in their European context
- 12 The Nature Conservancy Council and orchid conservation
- 13 A private conservation project in the coastal rainforest in Brazil: the first ten years
- 14 The role of the living orchid collection at Kew in conservation
- 15 Import and export of orchids and the law
- Index
10 - Predicting the probability of the bee orchid (Ophrys apifera) flowering or remaining vegetative from the size and number of leaves
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 November 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of contributors
- 1 Factors influencing the germination and storage characteristics of orchid pollen
- 2 Effect of temperature and moisture content on the viability of Cattleya aurantiaca seed
- 3 Asymbiotic germination of epiphytic and terrestrial orchids
- 4 Germination and mycorrhizal fungus compatibility in European orchids
- 5 Host–fungus relationships in orchid mycorrhizal systems
- 6 The effects of the composition of the atmosphere on the growth of seedlings of Cattleya aurantiaca
- 7 Orchid propagation by tissue culture techniques – past, present and future
- 8 Population biology and conservation of Ophrys sphegodes
- 9 Predicting population trends in Ophrys sphegodes Mill.
- 10 Predicting the probability of the bee orchid (Ophrys apifera) flowering or remaining vegetative from the size and number of leaves
- 11 British orchids in their European context
- 12 The Nature Conservancy Council and orchid conservation
- 13 A private conservation project in the coastal rainforest in Brazil: the first ten years
- 14 The role of the living orchid collection at Kew in conservation
- 15 Import and export of orchids and the law
- Index
Summary
Introduction
There is a growing awareness among plant ecologists that the size of an individual is more important in determining its behaviour than its chronological age. Rabotnov (1950) was among the first to demonstrate that in any closed community there is likely to be a distribution of plants in different age classes. He noted that there would be seedlings, juveniles, immature adult plants, reproductive plants, vegetative adult plants and senescent non-flowering plants of great age, but he was unable to identify the factors which contributed to a plant switching from a vegetative to a reproductive state. More recently, Werner (1975), Baskin & Baskin (1979) and Gross (1981) have shown that for a number of biennials a minimum size must be reached before flowering can be induced and above a minimum size the probability of an individual flowering increases directly with rosette size.
This study focuses on the behaviour of rosettes of Ophrys apifera L. over a six year period, with particular reference to the fate of rosettes (flowering or remaining vegetative) relative to their age, size and number of leaves in any particular growing season.
Site details
The study area was a gentle, north-facing slope situated in Com's Field at National Grid Reference (NGR) 52/200795, about 600 m west of Monks Wood Experimental Station. Prior to 1960, this field had been part of a mixed farm.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Modern Methods in Orchid Conservation , pp. 127 - 140Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1989
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