CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF ROOTS AND TOPS OF DIOECIOUS LYCHNIS IN VEGETATIVE AND FLOWERING PHASES OF GROWTH

Abstract

In view of the current interest in problems of nutritional ontogeny and the evident influence of reproductive processes thereon, experimental data on the composition of the dioecious species, Lychnis dioica L., are presented. Dioecious forms appear to have the advantage in studies of this type in permitting recognition of compositional and metabolic differences associated with sex expression. By virtue of their perennial habit, individual plants of Lychnis can be studied throughout their growth cycle, thus permitting repeated comparison of the nutritional trend in each of the two sexes in the vegetative and reproductive stages of a single plant. The fact that inception of the reproductive processes appears to exert a marked metabolic effect upon the entire parent sporophyte, made it seem advisable to include a study of the root systems of the two sexes in order to determine compositional alterations and top-root interrelationships distinguishing vegetative and reproductive plants. Observations and analyses thus include both roots and tops of plants in the vegetative (rosette or pre-blooming) as well as the early flowering stage. The former is of particular interest since few studies exist in which initial tests on roots of dioecious plants in the vegetative stage have been interpreted in the light of ultimate sex expression. In earlier publications (17,18) the writer has summarized certain quantitative determinations and their relation to sex in dioecious plants and has presented analytical data relative to the physico-chemical aspects of sexual expression in Lychnis dioica L. Subsequent to this report, the cogent work by Loehwing (15) has given the most comprehensive integration of data relative to the physiological aspects of sex in angiosperms to be found in the literature. Since that time additional investigations have been reported (6,8,9,10,11,12,13,16,21). Methods