"0tterbot" writes:
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?

I think I remember the same. Since then, banana growers have had to
contend with much. Wasn't there a "bunchy-top" disease? Most likely there
is constant pressure for a fruit with better appearance, or more-uniform
shape, or better keeping quality, etc., and agric research would have to
keep coming out with new varieties. I'd say that the relatively quick
time to maturity of banana plants (evidenced by the quick recovery from
that cyclone carnage a year or two back) would mean that newly developed
varieties can be brought to the supermarket shelf in short time compared
with, say, apples or mangoes. None the less, I do still find some of
those tiny seeds in some bananas. (On those few occasions when I
recklessly divert the rent money to purchase half a dozen bananas!)

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).

Good thinking 99! Just for the sake of the debate, I could contend that
it might be smarter for the plant's flower to simply produce a misleading
scent to attract the elephant, or buffalo, whatever, to stomp it into
the dirt. :-)

just offering some ideas to annoy you with ;-)

No, I find it refreshing to be thrown new ideas. :-))
--
John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)