A malformation of sex-changing plant Arisaema serratum (Araceae) produces both male and female inflorescences

Abstract

ABSTRACT The genus Arisaema (Araceae) can change sex expression between male and female with increasing plant size (sequential hermaphrodism). As most Arisaema species have only one inflorescence on each individual, sex expression is seemingly determined at the individual level. However, malformations with male and female inflorescences have occasionally been observed. Unfortunately, their developmental origin is unclear because of a lack of detailed descriptions of the shoot structure. To estimate the unit of sex determination in Arisaema, we observed the morphology of an aberrant individual of Arisaema serratum (Thunberg) Schott with multiple inflorescences for three years. In the second year, the aberrant individual produced pure male and female inflorescences. Based on the phyllotactic pattern of this malformation, we estimated that the inflorescences were duplicated due to a broadening of the apical meristem via fasciation. Contrary to other Arisaema plants with multiple inflorescences reported previously, the corm of the aberrant individual did not subdivide nor branch spontaneously after the growing season for three years. Thus, duplicated inflorescences presumably shared the resource supply without physiological partitioning during sex determination. These results imply that sex expression is determined at the inflorescence level but not at the individual or floret levels in dioecious Arisaema.