Stolons in the genus Neoregelia - Part 1. N. 'Fireball' and N. 'Greenball'

摘要

Stolon is a term used in botany in a very general sense for any stem (usually, but not always, specialized in structure) that runs along the surface of the ground and contributes to the vegetative spread of the parent by producing new shoots and rootsat intervals. With bromeliads, we use a much narrower definition since there is only a single pattern shown by stolons in the family. Here, stolons are specialized stems that spread out from the main stem of the parent and, under normal conditions, transition into a normal vegetative stem that supports a single vegetative rosette (offset or pup) at the terminal end. Once the offset reaches full size, it will commonly send out its own stolon(s), so you end up with chains of progressively younger plantsas you get further from the original mother plant. Even when the first generation pups give rise to second generation pups that appear to arise from the same stolon, this is not a case of the original stolon continuing to grow; each generation of offsets is produced by the vegetative stems of the previous generation.