Does anyone have examples of plants behaving very differently depending on their environment or location?
The following passage is from The Genus Chaenomeles by Claude Weber, published in The Journal of the Arnold Arboretum. If it weren’t from such a respected authority, I might be inclined to doubt it. It would be especially interesting to hear from anyone in the regions mentioned who grows Chaenomeles and can comment on whether these observations hold true.
“A similar reaction to the climate is not limited to plants belonging to the same clone or even to the same species. Independent of their parental species or hybrid groups, all cultivars from Avery Island, Louisiana, are more spiny than is usual in the genus. In the specimens from Washington, D-C., the leaves are always smaller than on identical cultivars grown in other localities. Fruits are larger when coming from Georgia, but they show abnormally corky and prominent lenticels when grown in the Netherlands. Shrubs in England, usually in late spring, bear the type of inflorescence intermediate between a short and a long shoot.”
The only examples I can think of are polyploids. There can be conditions where genetic variations are triggered by the environment. I also know of an example from the animal kingdom where a type of rabbit expresses either white or black fur entirely depending on temperature. Someone attached a small pocket heater to one for a few weeks and turned a white hare into a white hare with a black patch the size and shape of a pocket heater.
Ginseng … wild or wild simulatred in southern middle TN has short berry stems. They hardly ever rise above the level of the leaves on the prongs. 2 to 4 inches long.
But in the mountains of eastern KY and VA…the berry stems are often 8-12 inches long… which puts the berry clusters several inches above the leaves on the prongs.
When the berries are ripe (red) and elevated above the leaves… it makes the plant much easier to spot.
It is like a flag…saying here I am.
I had a seed producing bed composed of 44 nice mature roots collected from my area… all with shorter berry stems… and my friend in KY sent me 5 nice roots from his area… which all had long tall berry stems. I planted them in my seed producing bed… hoping that some of the seed produced would produce plants with longer berry stems. It did not…all the offspring plants has shorter berry stems.
Wild ginseng in different parts of my county and surrounding counties have different characteristics… some places produce plants with larger tops and smaller roots… some smaller tops and larger roots, some larger tops and larger roots and some with smaller tops and smaller roots.
I figure most of that is simply differences in soil fertility… and differences in light reaching the ground under the forest canopy.
Some of the largest ginseng plants and roots you will ever find are on creek or river bluffs… that face the east… they get very good morning sun… but only indirect light afternoon.
