On 27/05/16 08:55, Jeff Layman wrote:
Maybe a little OT, but has anyone seen seedling behaviour like this:
http://tinypic.com/r/wt8w7a/9

These are seedlings of Plum Mango (Bouea macrophylla), grown from seeds
obtained from fruit bought at that well-known purveyor of exotic seeds,
Marks & Spencer. What is strange to me is that the leaves hang down
vertically. I have never seen this before with any seedling.

The youngest one, extreme right, germinated a week ago, and when it
first appeared I am pretty sure the leaves were almost horizontal, but
within a few hours had dropped to the position shown. The oldest
seedling (about a month old) now has green, rather than brownish leaves,
but these still show no sign of moving to a horizontal position. I would
have though that a horizontal leaf position would be sought by all
seedlings as that is the most efficient fr photosynthesis.

Thanks for the replies and suggestions for the behaviour. It may well be
an adaptation to heavy rain (the leaves are very thin), but as to
whether or not the adult plants have the same pattern depends on what
photo you look at!

The Wikipedia photo definitely appears to show pendant leaves
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...-0024_ipb.jpg).


The Fruitpedia photo is a bit mixed
(http://www.fruitipedia.com/gandaria%...crophylla.htm).

The photos at Toptropicals show them all over the place
(http://toptropicals.com/catalog/uid/...burmanica.htm).

I just checked another tropical plant I'm wasting time on growing from
seed - Sour Santol (Sandoricum koetjape). That is more advanced, and
although I'm pretty sure the cotyledons were more horizontal than
vertical, the true leaves are fairly pendant.

It will be interesting to see how these species grow over the next year
or so until they get too big for the conservatory, or I get fed up with
them!

--

Jeff