Our Vancouver West End balcony, facing north 8 storeys above a dumpsterous alleyway, has hosted more than 2 dozen species of birds that we know about. One apparently graced us with a Salmonberry plant, which is now a robust foot-or-18-inches in height, in its own pot. It is all leaves. When I was asked when the berries would come, I replied that the young plant has a distinct paucity of flowers—none—and then, of course, I was asked when the flowers would come. Well, not this year, I suppose; but I haven't been able to explain just how our under-age salmonberry actually goes from being all leaves to producing flowers. What happens? Can someone please explain? Thank you very much.
Well, I found an answer to my own question. The genetic trigger that seems to be in control of the plant's yielding some leaf-growing energy to flower-producing energy, once the plant is old enough, is called Apetela1. It's "a lone master gene", we're told, which can generate proteins to turn on over a thousand other genes to initiate the plant's reproduction. But instead of my paraphrasing the source article, I may as well give you the source so you can read it for yourself, if you're interested: http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/450-how-do-flowers-know-when-to-bloom.html
