Cauliflory
Flowers growing from the hard and woody horizontal stem of a Watermelon Tree, Australia
Jackfruits growing directly from the trunk
Cauliflory is a botanical term referring to plants which flower and fruit from their main stems or woody trunks rather than from new growth and shoots. This can allow trees to be pollinated or have their seeds dispersed by animals which cannot climb or fly. [1] With fruit, plants may instead have fruit which drop from the canopy and ripen only after they reach the ground, an alternative "strategy" to cauliflory.[1]
The word comes from the Latin language caulis (=trunk or stem) with the suffix -flory (=flower)
Examples
Genus Ficus
- Ficus racemosa – Cluster Fig, Figwood, Goolar (Gular) Fig (Australia, SE Asia, Indian subcontinent and Malesia).
- Ficus sansibarica
- Ficus sur
- Ficus sycomorus
Other
- Syzygium moorei – Coolamon, Durobby, Rose Apple, Watermelon Tree (Australia)
- Syzygium cormiflorum – White Apple, Wild Apple, Watergum, Cairns Satinash, Bumpy Satinash (N.E. Australia)
- Cacao
- Cempedak
- Cercis (Redbud)
- Dysoxylum spp. including D.parasiticum and D.spectabile
- False soap-berry
- Jabuticaba
- Jackfruit
- Papaya
- Natal ironplum
- Stamvrug
- Tree fuchsia
See also
References
- 1 2 Jeremy M.B. Smith. "Tropical forest: Population and community development and structure: Relationships between the flora and fauna -- Encyclopædia Britannica". Retrieved 2008-03-07.
External links
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