On 5/11/07 11:55, in article , "Nick
Maclaren" wrote:


In article . com,
Dave Poole writes:

Most interesting.

| Some plants develop adventitious roots (roots along the stems or at
| the leaf nodes) and the 'root buds' for these are already present.

I suspect that a few plants have stem cells (that is cells that are
part of the stem) with the potential to form root buds at any point.
My guess is that several aquatic plants are like that, because some
don't seem to have a clear distinction between roots and stems.

But that is pure guesswork.


Interesting to read this Nick, because I've just read a book by Peter Kerr
who used to have a small orange and lemon farm in Majorca. He writes that
local farmers told him that if you cut a twig off a lemon tree and shoved it
in the ground upside down, it would root from the leaf nodes. He wasn't at
all sure if he was having his leg pulled but he tried it and said that for
months, nothing happened. Then other people bought the house in whose garden
he'd done it. A few months more and later, he went back and saw a row of
lemon trees there. He had no idea if they were 'his' or whether the new
owners had simply planted new saplings. He doesn't seem to have repeated
the experiment, unfortunately! If anyone living in a nice, sunny, warm
country reads this and has a lemon tree, please try it and let us know!


--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'