Male And Female Trees?

sorce

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But they run the gamut .

Transgender and such.
Asexual.

Yes?

Sorce
 

CWTurner

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And you don't want to mix up a male and female Ginkgo. (though I think the only way to tell, is to wait and see if it fruits)
CW
 

leatherback

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Sooo many options!

Male trees,
female trees
Trees with mixed see flowers (Both male as female)
Trees with male & female flowers

In short. Yes.
 

aml1014

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If there wasn't male and female, how would they reproduce? Like the others have said YES.
 

Robert E Holt

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And you don't want to mix up a male and female Ginkgo. (though I think the only way to tell, is to wait and see if it fruits)
CW

Never experianced it but heard it described as smelling like "Raw Dog Vomit"
 

ColinFraser

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The fleshy covering of Ginkgo seeds contains butyric acid. That name shares a root with butter, and "rancid butter" is an excellent description of the smell. And yes, butyric acid is also responsible for the distinctive smell of human vomit.
 

grouper52

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All sexual activity in bonsai should be nipped in the bud, so to speak. You don't want energy for growth and development squandered on sexual/ procreative activities.

It's a stern discipline, this bonsai thing. :)
 

Eric Group

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The fleshy covering of Ginkgo seeds contains butyric acid. That name shares a root with butter, and "rancid butter" is an excellent description of the smell. And yes, butyric acid is also responsible for the distinctive smell of human vomit.
Wait... So butter is made out of vomit?
 

Leo in N E Illinois

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Majority of trees are monecious, having flowers with both sexes. This is the "normal" state. One tree is all you need to get viable seed. Vast majority of plants follow this habit. In this group, there is a strategy for maintaining genetic diversity, for example some cherry trees, individuals will not accept their own pollen. In this case a second tree, genetically different (grown from a different seed) but of the same species is needed to pollinate the flower. Pecans, some cherries, some plums, pawpaws and a host of other tree species do this. In this case you need 2 of a kind, but any 2 will do.

Dioecious trees, each individual will have flowers that are male or female, but not both. The hollies are like this, also persimmon, kiwi, ginkgo, many members of the olive family, and a number of other species follow this pattern.

And then there are the various blends of patterns, with some trees changing sex based on environmental factors, such as light, there is an orchid (Catesetum) that in very bright light will have female flowers, and in shade will have male flowers, and sometime will have both when conditions are in-between.

Also there are exceptional clones, sports or mutations of trees that behave differently than the text book pattern for the species. For example the kaki persimmons used for culinary fruit (not the bonsai ones) the clones selected for kaki orchards are female trees, that if they are not pollinated, will still form fruit, and since they were not pollinated the resulting fruit will be seedless. Yet if a male persimmon were nearby, the fruit would have seed. The wild form of kaki persimmon will not form fruit if it is not pollinated.

So it is all over the map. It all depends on which species of tree you are looking at.
 

CWTurner

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Leo,
Thanks, that is clear and concise.
Tell me, on a tree like silver maple that puts out literally pounds of seeds, is this a result of each individual flower being fertilized and turning into an individual seed, or does the tree just put out seed without regard to whether it was fertilized or not?
CW
 

0soyoung

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Tell me, on a tree like silver maple that puts out literally pounds of seeds, is this a result of each individual flower being fertilized and turning into an individual seed, or does the tree just put out seed without regard to whether it was fertilized or not?
Maples produce samaras regardless ... The seed capsule just doesn't contain an embryo if the flower wasn't pollinated.
 

Leo in N E Illinois

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@CWTurner - most maples are wind pollinated, likely every silver maple seed you see, is genetically unique, each coming from a different pollen grain fertilizing a different flower. Prolific aren't they?

Citrus is one of the groups that is capable of viable seed without fertilization. They also out cross, so the same citrus fruit can have seed that is conventional and a few seed that are parthenogenic.
 

CWTurner

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likely every silver maple seed you see, is genetically unique, each coming from a different pollen grain fertilizing a different flower. Prolific aren't they?
Prolific is a good description. I literally clean them up with a shovel. Fascinating that each seed could be unique. Even after cleaning up all the seeds that I can, I still have seedlings popping up in gutters, around my wood pile, from under shrubbery and old pots. This year I'm letting some of them grow and if they survive the winter, I'll pot them up and see what I can make of them.
CW
 

GrimLore

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Prolific is a good description. I literally clean them up with a shovel. Fascinating that each seed could be unique. Even after cleaning up all the seeds that I can, I still have seedlings popping up in gutters, around my wood pile, from under shrubbery and old pots. This year I'm letting some of them grow and if they survive the winter, I'll pot them up and see what I can make of them.
CW

I have the exact same situation here in Bucks County. This season I collected Amur and Acer palmatum ‘Atropurpurpeum’ to grow replacement whips. Could just wait for them to grow in the gutters but the Wife prefers I don't :p It took a couple seasons to figure out what the individual seeds on several Maple varieties we have around here are rather then just plant and guess.

Grimmy
 
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