Reproduction and Growth
Attalea species are monoecious—male and female flowers are separate, but are borne by the same plant. Various species have been described as being insect pollinated, including A. phalerata, while pollination in A. colenda and A. speciosa, has been attributed both to insects and wind.
Seed germination is remote tubular—during germination, as the cotyledon expands it pushes the young shoot away from the seed. After germination, the stem initially grows downward before turning to grow upward and produce the aboveground stem. This produces a "saxophone shaped" belowground portion of the stem. The fact that the shoot tips of Attalea seedlings are underground it likely to contribute to their fire-tolerance.
Read more about this topic: Attalea (palm)
Famous quotes containing the words reproduction and/or growth:
“Although Samuel had a depraved imagination—perhaps even because of this—love, for him, was less a matter of the senses than of the intellect. It was, above all, admiration and appetite for beauty; he considered reproduction a flaw of love, and pregnancy a form of insanity. He wrote on one occasion: “Angels are hermaphrodite and sterile.””
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