Erythronium seed dispersal

Jane McGary janemcgary@earthlink.net
Mon, 16 Mar 2015 11:00:46 PDT
My apology for misremembering and misspelling some of the details of 
the Rock Garden Quarterly article on the above subject. I think that, 
given the nature of the author's correspondence, it must have been a 
case of traumatic repressed memory.

The correct spelling of the term for ant dispersal is myrmecochory.

The western American Erythronium species' seeds do not have 
elaiosomes. However, when one looks at a native population of them, 
they are rather evenly spread out in an area, so the seeds are being 
dispersed some distance from the parent plants by some mechanism. One 
correspondent suggested caching by voles; however, the presence of 
voles in this region often works against the presence of bulbs, which 
are a favorite food of the animals, and germination from vole or 
mouse caches is likely to produce close clusters of seedlings.

Species flowering here today: Erythronium hendersonii, E. 
grandiflorum, E. oreganum, E. multiscapideum, E. citrinum.

Jane McGary
Portland, Oregon, USA




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