Re: [aroid-l] what does inflorescence mean?

From: "Albert Huntington" amh at ieee.org> on 2003.06.04 at 16:45:34(10313) Hi Nancy, I'm probably going to end up repeating information already provided by others, but here goes... Inflorescence ( not to be confused with fluorescence ) is a technical term for something us non-botanists would usually just call a flower. In an aroid, it typically means the spathe and the spadix including all the little tiny male and female flowers attached to the spadix. If one wants to get all technical-like, the largest inflorescence probably belongs to the Talipot palm, Corypha umbraculifera - but it doesn't look like just one flower to us non technical people - it looks like a cluster of flowers - a 30 foot tall cluster of flowers. There are also some agave and bromeliad species which produce pretty large inflorescences. The largest single flower is likely Rafflesia arnoldii, a parasitic plant that grows in southeast asia. It gets about 3 feet wide. So far, nobody has been able to grow this one in captivity successfully. +More So what do we have? Amorphophallus titanum - the largest inflorescence that looks like a single flower to laypeople. Not a title that trips off the tongue, but still a pretty darn cool plant. There's some more information about plant record breakers at: http://waynesword.palomar.edu/ww0601.htm --Albert --- SongString@aol.com wrote: > What does inflorescence mean? It reminds me of something > that glows in the dark, but that can't be right. I know > the flower of the .Titanum is the largest inflorescence, > but does that mean there is another flower that is larger > in the world, because it is not categorized as an > inflorescence? > > If there is a larger flower than the A. titanum, what is it? > > Nancy ________________________________________________________________ Sent via the EV1 webmail system at mail.ev1.net

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