I have what I believe are cockroaches eating my Maypop flowers. I’m not sure what part of the flower it’s called but there’s five and you can see in the pictures he’s already ate 4 of the 5. Will this cause the maypop not to fruit? they seem to be doing this only at night so I think the bees have already pollinated the flower.
1 Like
Some roaches may visit flowers, but I cannot find a reference to them eating flowers. Yours may be after sap or nectar.
1 Like
they are eating the anther (that’s what that part is called)
The anther contains the pollen that are picked up by insects (bee’s etc.) to pollinate other flowers. Basically the male part of the flower
Pollen are rich in proteins. So i guess that’s what the insect is after.
Anyway if there are enough of the anthers left on the plant to “dust” the bee’s in pollen. You can still get a good fruit set.
And since most passiflora only open their flower for one day, you’ll get new pollen every day. So you should be fine.
for it to give any problems, the insects would need to eat most of the anthers early in the morning before pollinators visit.
ps: those are some excellent “action” photo’s you took!
2 Likes
upon second look, i see the anthers laying around. seemingly uneaten.
So my thought that they ate them for proteïne seems incorrect.
The insects seem to bite of the anther but leave the separated anther alone. Maybe their after plant sap coming out of the filament? and if so, if they might go after the style to. And if so, that can cause trouble. I’m not sure, but i think i remember that the migration of the pollen from the stigma through the style to the ovary to take a day or maybe longer. so if it gets broken/eaten before than. you won’t get fruit.
if made a rough diagram of the anatomy.
The anther (red) contains the pollen, that the insects pick up and pollinate other flowers with. I think all passiflora have 5 anthers
The anther is connected to the filament (green)
And the anther and filament together are called the stamen
The stigma (blue line red text) is where the flower “absorbs” pollen
The pollen germinate on the stigma and grow a pollen tube trough the style (white line black text) till they reach the ovary (purple) (the ovary will grow into the fruit) I think all passiflora have 3 stigma’s
the stringy part originating from the middle of the flower is called the corona (yellow)
the flower leaves (perianth) consist of sepals (pink) , those enclose the flower bud. And for most passiflora are green on the back side, and coloured on the top side. And petals (brown) and those are usualy coloured on both top and bottom side.
I think all passiflora have both 5 sepals and petals
the nectar is hidden in the middle of the flower, behind the ring of upward facing fibers (called the androgynophore)
so i am a bit puzzled what the insect is after. Does not seem to eat the pollen. (it’s hard to see on the photo, but can you see if all the pollen have been removed from the anther? )
And does not seem to go for the nectar either.
But is eating the filament.
either way. Insects eating the filament after pollination, should not hurt your chances of fruit
Thanks for the help I noticed one antler laying on the flower three disappeared and one still left it did look like he was eating on the filament itself or maybe he just chewed off the antler and sucked out the nectar? I’m going to go back out tonight and look again. I’ve had about 50% fruit but I thought that was pretty good considering I only planted them beginning of June.
the anthers don’t contain nectar, so I’m still baffled by what the insect is doing. it could be after plant sap, but why it’s only chewing on the filament than?
Anyway, as long it leaves the stigma, style and ovary alone, you should be fine fruit wise.
1 Like