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Feb 27, 2015 8:44 AM CST
Name: Janet Super Sleuth
Near Lincoln UK
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Thanks for the link, I'll have a nosey around. They say they have their own skilled collecting teams, ho-hum, skilled at what, collecting?! Paid piecemeal? So often words are used to give an impression, and so often those words can easily be skimmed over giving the brain the satisfaction fix it was looking for that what you will be getting is 'correct'. All too often, sellers use a name which people are familiar with, if they are not familiar with it then the likelihood of them mentally attaching to the name doesn't bring a sale, as unfamiliarity is something people shy away from. I need to say that I am not directing my comments at this particular seller, but where there is a chain of supply that chain depends on all the links knowing what they are doing and doing it with utmost honesty.

I have no training in botany either, but like you, if I wanted to understand what terms meant or related to I had to do my research and I've been doing it for a few years now.

I can only think the 'crown' they refer to is the tall parts rising from the centre, with the lower anthers surrounding. There's plenty of good diagrams on the internet. On the following link, in section 'flower structure' you will get a good idea of how a plant is pollinated. The 'stigma' in the illustration you will see best on lily flowers, that is the part which will be fertilised by the pollen held on the surrounding anthers either through natural means or by insects. Anthers are held on top of thin stalks called 'filaments'.

http://generalhorticulture.tam...

The 'crown' mentioned looks like the middle of a crocus flower, in this Turnera flower the pollen is on the anthers which are lower down around the throat of the flower or the anthers could be non-functional. I linked to photos showing flowers of Turnera ulmifolia where the top flower doesn't have the crown like structure but it does have a short, stubby 'style' which probably has a stigma attached to the top, you can see it if you magnify to 200%. The bottom flower has a very obvious, taller structure in the middle which isn't like the simple style of the first flower.

http://www.yorku.ca/shore/Turn...

As before, I mentioned that some plants have male and female flowers, could this be the case with Turnera ulmifolia? It could be the flowers are both self fertile or "bisexual" as well as "unisexual", a good description on wiki:

A "perfect" flower has both stamens and carpels, and may be described as "bisexual" or "hermaphroditic". A "unisexual" flower is one in which either the stamens or the carpels are missing, vestigial or otherwise non-functional. Each flower is either "staminate" (having only functional stamens) and thus "male", or "carpellate" (or "pistillate") (having only functional carpels) and thus "female". If separate staminate and carpellate flowers are always found on the same plant, the species is called "monoecious". If separate staminate and carpellate flowers are always found on different plants, the species is called "dioecious".


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...

Plants have developed means of reproduction to enable them to survive possible naturally devastating events. At this point, it might be a good idea to have a closer look at all the flowers on your plants to see if they all look the same. Think of reproduction in terms of male and female and what the structures would look like, the plant kingdom often follows suit. Whistling If that doesn't stir your imagination, think of plumbing or computer leads where you have male and female connectors. Hilarious!

Even if the seeds were said to be 'wild collected' there's no guarantee of that, given Suriname has a long history of plants coming from other continents there is a possibility of wild escapees. As you mention the uniformity and abundance of your flowers, that is something which points to a hybrid. Lack of fragrance could be another indication as hybrids often lose the fragrance.

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