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  • From: "Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Test Question
  • Date: Wed, 04 Aug 2004 07:50:50 -0700

Title: Re: [NAFEX] Test Question
In most plants that I know of, there are no distinguishing cytogenetic features.  The sex is determined by a few genes that aren't located on any chromosomes that have any sort of obvious landmarks.  I can tell from experience that in grapes, which have separate male and female vines in the wild, the chromosomes are so small you would need a very expensive microscope to even see the chromosomes - they are barely visible at 2500 magnification.  
   In American persimmons, you can tell the sex of most trees when they aren't blooming easily.  Males will have clusters of three tiny stems from the male flowers attached to the twigs, while females will have larger, single stems.  These are visible even in winter.
-Lon Rombough


   Does anyone know of a test to determine the sex of a plant?  I'm speaking of plants like Persimmon, Kiwi, Bitter Sweet, etc. that have male plants and female plants.  Among mammals, for example, the cells of females contain Barr bodies and males do not; a simple test for anyone passessing a microscope.  Is there a similar test to tell male plants from female plants?

Jim Fruth
Pequot Lakes, MN




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