Hello, my name is Thorin Siglin and I am a Senior at Dolores High School, Colorado and am attempting to do an advanced science project designed to study sexual preferences of a dioecious plant when exposed to different environmental factors. I am having difficulty finding a plant that meets a specific criteria that would best suit this type of experiment. The plant must: -Grow quickly -Flower quickly -Be dioecious (separate male/female flowering individuals) -Able to be grown indoors Ideally, I would also like the plant to display dimorphism as well (hermaphrodism), be easily obtainable from seed or seedling, and for it to be grown easily. Any help on selecting a good species (or a list/genus that fit the criteria), or even help pertaining to the subject in general would be greatly appreciated. Regards, Thorin K. Siglin
I don't suppose you can get permission to grow Cannabis. It would suit your needs perfectly. Here is a list:http://msuplants.com/SaylorPlants/Ref_Info/Dioecious2w.htm, but you probably want an annual and not many are dioecious. Maybe an Amaranthus species would work. http://www.bioone.org/doi/pdf/10.1614/WT-06-045.1 (Hopefully this link works, I may be viewing this curtesy of UBC.)
As well as I KNOW Cannabis would work, unfortunately, the legal aspect of it (even here, in Colorado) is impossible for me to deal with. thankyou for your other suggestions, I will review both and look for something that catches my eye...
Thanks for the tip of the Amaranthus genus, I found a species that might be suitable to my experiment... Amaranth palmeri, a summer annual that sports seperate male and female flowers, grows very fast, and can tolerate harsh conditions. Now the only questions that remain are: How quickly can I get a plant to flower (remembering that I am indoors, and light cycles will play a role in my experiment) and how distinguishable will the flowers be?
