Author Topic: Akebia quinata flower morphology  (Read 617 times)

Plantinyum

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Akebia quinata flower morphology
« on: May 17, 2022, 01:53:00 AM »
My vine just flowered a week or so ago, and one interesting observation i carried.....most of the flowers like 99% were small in size, but there were also two that were way bigger that the rest. The two big ones were like a steroid laden version of the rest ,and had somewhat of a star shaped ovule i quess at the center.
So are the big ones the female flowers?
The smaller i would assume were the male ones, and they had pollen carrying organs, but without any pollen that i could see...
Wanted to artifficially pollinate the bigger ,supposedly female flowers ,but there was no pollen....
Will they set without pollination ?

Well just checked in the web and yes, the bigger ones are the female flowers...also read that the plant needs cross pollination ,so i wont get fruit this year, hopefully my other plant will get big this year and flower next, so they can pollinate each other....
« Last Edit: May 17, 2022, 02:00:19 AM by Plantinyum »

Oolie

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Re: Akebia quinata flower morphology
« Reply #1 on: May 18, 2022, 05:22:19 PM »
Good luck, it's an interesting fruit for sure, Chocolate aroma, but no sweetness to speak of.

Nick C

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Re: Akebia quinata flower morphology
« Reply #2 on: May 18, 2022, 10:43:31 PM »
Yup larger flowers are female. I've also wondered about the pollen and had no idea what even pollinates these things. I decided to do some hand pollination these past few weeks. Something was definitely left on the stigma. Possibly a couple fruits look like they might hold.






Plantinyum

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Re: Akebia quinata flower morphology
« Reply #3 on: May 19, 2022, 01:34:44 AM »
I checked mine yesterday and the male flowers have all dropped, the female ones anly dropped their petals, with the ovules still partially intact/ some of the individual ones may have shed. 
I red some on the subject of pollination, several places stayted that akebia is pollinated sometimes by flies and bees, but maynly by wind. The wind pollination may explain why we cant find the pollen, it may be just too small for the eye to dettect...