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During the period when the corm produces a flower rather than a leaf, does the flower do any photosynthesizing, or does the energy to construct the flower come
by jessriedel 4y ago
During the period when the corm produces a flower rather than a leaf, does the flower do any photosynthesizing, or does the energy to construct the flower come completely from the corm's stores? Wouldn't it need to photosynthesize just to fix the carbon to build the flower? (My understanding is that almost all the mass of plants comes from water and from carbon dioxide in the air, with the soil contributing mostly just trace minerals.)
- camtarn 4y agoReply from my partner, a horticulturist at RBGE who works with the titan arum: "It's green so it's almost certainly is doing some photosynthesis but almost all of the energy is coming from the corm. There's enough energy in the corm to produce a flower, seeds and fruit; this can take 9 months, and during that period there's basically just a stump, no leaf. The corm depletes vastly after flowering. The titan arum we have is so big it seems to manage to have enough energy to produce a leaf again after flowering. Most just die after flowering and fruiting."