I decided to gather samaras from the Corstorphinense sycamore, in the hope of getting an early start on some variegated seedlings. (If they don't go now, presumably they'll sit out all winter and go in the spring. But they have well developed nice green embryos, so perhaps.) While laying them out, I came across not one but two sextuplets: 6 winged samaras with perfect symmetry and apparently viable seeds. Now it's not unusual for Corstorphinense to have 3 winged samaras, and there were a number of those. I've noticed some other maples like Koto no ito sometimes have several winged samaras (I counted 5 once) but they are usually irregular with some underdeveloped wings and parthenocarpic seeds. Anyone else see these multiples? What's the highest number of wings observed? Symmetrical wings? cheers to all, it's finally raining here, haven't mowed the lawn for 3 months, lots of leaf drop and colors. Most dry year in Norman memory, beats '76 even apparently. -E
never see similar samaras !have you a pics?.... mid cold summer in Rome only two weeks temperature over 30° (38 °)today rained :)
Hi Alex, I planted them, but I'll look to see if there are some more. Glad to hear you got rain, too! OK, I picked some strange ones off of the low branches, didn't get the ladder out so these were easily found. I found 2 nonuplets!! Here are the pictures, sorry about the wonky filenames. 2847,2849: first nonuplet 2850: a nice triplet, there are lots of these 2851,2852: second nonuplet (1 wing is hidden byy angle in the top view) 2853: a strange quintuplet 2848: an octuplet 2855: a sextuplet but not a pretty one Didn't find any of the pretty sextuplets but there may be more higher up the tree. -E
emery, fascinating pictures. thanks. keep us informed about germination rate. I germinated pseudoplatanus Leopoldii in early October and found it a nuisance keeping it going as a tiny seedling in the late fall and winter. our weather in coastal California has been very cool and foggy - lots of mildew and I have an atropurpureum that already has fall leaf color. strange weather.
Thanks for the pictures. Fascinating seeds likely caused by fasciated flowers. Not sure how common this would be on maples, not something I have encountered before. It is common with tomatoes and other flowering plants. [WIKI]Fasciation[/WIKI] Re: the weather - we have had similar; bad frosts in mid May; very dry summer; and now rain. Hopefully the summer is not over as some newspapers in the UK are reporting!
I've seen multiple-seeded samaras quite frequently in maples; A. pseudoplatanus does seem to be more prone to it than most maples, but I have seen them on e.g. A. platanoides and A. campestre too. Highest I can recollect counting is an octuplet, but only one or two looked viable, the rest stunted / aborted.
Maf, it could be fasciation, but if so it's only effecting the flowers. The tree itself shows good healthy growth with nicely spaced nodes. The flowers are very prolific, long corycombs that rival the native sycamores. Supposedly Corstorphinense rarely sets viable seed (MOW IIRC) but mine has lots. I have a forsythia that exhibits lots of fasciation, it's a horrible looking thing in places, stems all glued together. It does flower off of fasciated branchlets, but not very nice frankly. What's remarkable here is that some are so pretty and regular, the triplets I find very attractive. Michael, I haven't seen multiples on the native maples, but perhaps I haven't been looking hard enough either. The occasional multiples on cultivars tend to be as you describe, most non-viable (and not very attractive either). So, I wonder if I'm likely to get a high rate of mutation from these seeds? Does anyone else notice multiples on Corstorphinense? Surely I'm not alone in growing this magnificent tree... It really glows in spring, and the flowering period is spectacular. Has anyone visited the venerable parent tree in Scotland? -E
That's sad news to me. Thanks though Michael. It occurred to me there is another explanation for this years strange seed: frost damage. Corstorphinense is very early flowerer, the seed may have been pretty well set when we had a bad frost this spring. For example, the native sycamores have almost no seed at all, and there are no apples [!] in the orchard, something I've never seen. We got good early and mid-june cherry crops, but of the tardive there was no sign at all... Just a thought. Jennifer Young, writing in "Village Edinburgh" offers a slightly different version of the end of Lord Forrester than that given in MOW: "One tale with its basis in fact is that of the fiery-tempered Lady Christian Nimmo, mistress (and also niece) of Lord James Forrester. One day in 1679, after a quarrel, she ran her lover through with his own sword – a crime for which she was later executed. It’s said that her ghost, the White Lady of Corstorphine, can still be seen close to the site of the sycamore." The "stranger side of scotland" offers a juicier account, again at odds with MOW, that supports the avove: "Corstorphine's most famous ghost is the White Lady. She is supposed to be the ghost of Lady Christian Nimmo who died in 1679. Lady Christian was the niece of Lord James Forrester (formerly James Baillie) of Corstorphine Castle. The Lord was a man of loose morals and had affairs with many women - including his own niece Lady Christian. Because Lady Christian was not only his niece but also married, this affair took place in secret. The couple used to meet under the old sycamore tree. One night when Lady Christian arrived Lord James didn't turn up. Lady Christian guessed - correctly - that he was drinking in the nearby Black Bull Inn. It was a guess that was lead to disaster for them both. Lady Christian sent one of her servants to take word to Lord James that she was waiting for him. The Lord arrived shortly thereafter, drunk and angry at having been disturbed. The two lovers then argued, with Lord James reportedly calling Lady Christian a "whoor". Lady Christian lost her temper, grabbed the sword from the drunken Lord and ran him through. According to Lady Christian's account this killing an accident - she had taken the sword to defend herself, then he ran at her. However this didn't persuade the courts and - despite attempts to escape - she was sentenced to death and was beheaded at Edinburgh Cross. At the time of her execution, Lady Christian was wearing her purest white dress and a white hood. It appears she still wears these today as the ghost of a white woman has been reported in the area of the sycamore tree. According to some, the White Lady of Corstorphine still carries a sword dripping with blood." Although I have yet to see any ghosts, with or without dripping swords, this offers an occult explanation for the whacky seeds! :) -E
If there is a ghostly influence from Lady Christian maybe the seedlings will show a white variegation? :)
In concert with Michael's post I've seen the inclusive merged seed structures around here in native creek side Acer macrophyllum, a select grafted cultivar of Acer saccharum and in some grafted Acer saccharinum. As for multiple, fused clusters of seed on a Japanese Maple, I've only seen it occur in two old rooted cutting grown plants of 'Koshimino' and 'Shishigashira' that I can recall. In both cases seed was gathered and attempts were made to germinate those clustered seed with about a 20% germination rate. Pretty close to what Michael related to in that we felt that several of the seed did not have viable endosperm development to germinate. Blanks is what they were once affectionately called in other plants. In theory all palmatum type Maples that yield apical and terminal tip leaf whorls should be able to yield multiple clusters of seed residing on one stem. Jim
A little late on this one but Sekka yatsubusa does indeed produce multiple seeds on a samara as shown...in fact the majority of the samaras I have observed have had between 4 and 6 embryos. The yield has been moderate...I would say no more than 50 percent, but I haven't counted the exact number. I have seen triplets randomly on several different cultivars, but never more than 3 wings on those trees.
