"John Savage" wrote in message
om...
" writes:
Some like bananas do quite well propagating vegetatively. Could they
do that indefinitely in the wild?

What you wrote sounds fair enough, but I'm not so sure about bananas.
I seem to recall that wild bananas are almost all seeds and little
flesh, the seeds being about the size of custard apple seeds. I can't
say I've ever heard of monkeys eating wild bananas as part of their
natural diet. Anyone?

sorry, don't know a thing about wild monkeys & wild bananas, BUT - i do
recall that when i was a kid, bananas had seeds in them - tiny, tiny ones
like specks, arranged down the middle of the banana; not many & barely
visible. now, you don't see seeds in bananas ever. do they grow a different
cultivar now?

Monsterias are in a different category, because I think that these are
still the wild cultivar, I don't think they have been through selective
breeding for cultivation. It does seem a waste of energy to produce a
large juicy fruit which does nothing to propagate the species when it
contains no seeds. Is it a native plant here? I don't see any evidence
of any creatures valuing its fruit. (How to explain why Indian Mynahs
leave it alone?)

i'm really talking out my arse here, so just indulge me g - but it's true
that a plant might fruit to attract creatures which perhaps don't eat the
fruit or don't spread seed that way, but have some other effect to enhance
reproduction. i understand that in warm areas monsteras produce aerial roots
(they certainly do at my sister's place in northern nsw!), so attracting
animals that tread on the plant somewhat would be likely to lead to layering
of the plant & thus to reproduction that way? (for example).

having said that, ime most monsteras don't fruit anyway (i assume that while
it will grow almost anywhere, it will only fruit in its preferred climate?)
so that might have soemthing to do with it - a plant which is keen to fruit
(as it were) will do so, whereas a plant for which it's far less "necessary"
to fruit might be much more selective.

just offering some ideas to annoy you with ;-)
kylie