Charlie Pridham wrote:
"K" wrote in message
...
Mike Lyle writes

I've often wondered why so few familiar plants
adopt the Burrowing Clover tactic of sowing their own seed in this way.

Obvious limit on how far you can disperse.
If you're going the route of dispersing within 'plant's length' of
yourself, you'll do better with runners, though you don't get the
'future-proofing' of sexual propagation.
--
Kay

In answer to mikes question , no it doesn't it has small bean like pods
above ground, underground it has a running tuberous root which forms
enlarged nodules both the roots and ground nuts are edible, it has defied
attempts to grow it commercially due to the 2 year cycle.

Thanks, both. It was the general selective advantage of sexual
reproduction that interested me: since so few species (of those known
to me, at any rate) do this trick, it presumably isn't a highly
adaptive character. Groundnuts seem like things which evolved alongside
some digging and hoarding animal, so they would have had a good means
of dispersal. Even if opened at once within a metre or two, I imagine a
pod would often enough be abandoned on the surface while at least one
seed remained intact -- going through a bowl of shells after my
pampered family had been at them provides some evidence for that.
Perhaps somebody can point me toward a good article somewhe I'm
getting fascinated.

--
Mike.