Morning Glories: First Bloom - Quintana Roo, Mexico MG, 1 by atenkley

atenkley wrote:
Ron, yesterday I suspected that the skewer was stopped at the base of the stamens at the entrance to the nectar tube. I sacrificed a flower this morning to investigate further. I found that indeed I was not getting the tool to the base of the tube. With a small amount of additional pressure, it slid down the tube quite easily and has a much more solid stop than yesterday's method. I sliced a flower longitudinally to show the differences between the two measurements, and the difference between the old and the new "Internal Tube Length". I wonder if this should more appropriately be called a "Corolla Length"?

The internal measurement could possibly vary with different development conditions, as today the flowers were more flared with less of the limb "flat" or floppy. This measurement is probably more of an individual flower descriptor than of taxanomic value... I think the external tube length measurement gas fewer variables and will be more consistent within a series.

I realize that I have some standardizing of technique to accomplish..like how much pressure do I apply to the straightedge while measuring the throat width..

I'm sure I'll develope some standards / methods that will fit my purposes!

This message was edited Oct 22, 2007 4:38 PM