"Mike Lyle" wrote in message
oups.com...

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.

I think possibly that the north American name "ground nut" is misleading as
they can not regrow from the underground tubers/nuts they are just the food
reserves not seeds, you need a growing point as well. while peanuts which
are also called ground nuts are seeds which can be used to reproduce new
plants.
Violets often produce seed without needing fertilization, while other plants
seem to know if the plant is related and will not set seed readily by
crossing either with other flowers on themselves or a clone of themselves
but will set seed quite happily with a different genetic clone (i.e.
Lapageria) The plants I have the most trouble getting to set fruit are
Holboellia's and Akebia's, nothing I have tried seems to work, answers on a
postcard please!

--
Charlie, gardening in Cornwall.
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of National Plant Collection of Clematis viticella (cvs)