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Thursday 12 November 2015

Abnormal Timothy

This Timothy grass--Phleum praetense, is late flowering on a pile of bare soil in the park at Todmorden. But what makes it different are the small 'leaves' growing from the base of the flowering spike.

The usual small scales on the spike are in evolutionary terms modified leaves and some grass species occasionally 'remember' their past and elongate these scales (glumes and lemmas) into leaves.

This is known as Proliferation and occurs in grasses more frequently than in other plants. Sometimes the process is called Vivipary but this term should only apply to seeds that germinate in situ on the plant.

There are many theories why Proliferation occurs but it does seem to happen more towards the end of the flowering season. It seems the Florigen hormone has been used up producing normal flowers, so the plant goes into vegetative growth within the spikelets.
 
I have seen this often in Cocksfoot but never before in Timothy.
 
                            
                                      Proliferating Timothy Grass
 

1 comment:

  1. That's fascinating Phillip. I've never seen that but will be looking out for it from now on.
    Other late flowerers seen today are Corn Marigold and Field Scabious (from planted seed mix obviously) next to Woodhouse Lane, Todmorden.
    And a Hogweed with a fully open flower today further up Woodhouse Lane, with two different species of fly feeding on the nectar! 15th November !

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