Euphorbia obesa with male and female flowers?

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splitchestnut
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Euphorbia obesa with male and female flowers?

Post by splitchestnut »

My oldest euphorbia obesa which had always produced female flowers suddenly surprised me by producing female AND male flowers at the same time. Is this common for obesas? I hope it's not a sign of stress or other issues.
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One Windowsill
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Re: Euphorbia obesa with male and female flowers?

Post by One Windowsill »

Age and desperation? Has she ever produced seeds?

There are some species where this will happen.
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splitchestnut
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Re: Euphorbia obesa with male and female flowers?

Post by splitchestnut »

I got her in 2017, I'm not sure how old she was when I got her. She's never made seeds since I didn't have a male obesa until recently and even now they aren't always blooming at exactly the same time that pollination would be possible. I also wasn't particularly interested in making seeds since I don't really have room to grow more plants but if it's important for her health I can definitely make it happen!
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splitchestnut
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Re: Euphorbia obesa with male and female flowers?

Post by splitchestnut »

I got her in 2017, I'm not sure how old she was when I got her. She's never made seeds since I didn't have a male obesa until recently and even now they aren't always blooming at exactly the same time that pollination would be possible. I also wasn't particularly interested in making seeds since I don't really have room to grow more plants but if it's important for her health I can definitely make it happen!
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mmcavall
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Re: Euphorbia obesa with male and female flowers?

Post by mmcavall »

I have one relatively young obesa that I tagged as male, since it produced male flowers. However more recently it is producing female flowers. No sure what is going on.
Mrs.Green
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Re: Euphorbia obesa with male and female flowers?

Post by Mrs.Green »

Interesting. Some fishspecies can change the sex too, if the male fish in a ‘harem’ dies. The links discuss this fenomen in plants and fives some clues to why this happens.

https://iflscience.com/plants-and-anima ... hange-sex/

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2 ... 094606.htm

https://weedmaps.com/learn/the-plant/he ... -turn-male
( hope I am not doing anything wrong , posting the last link? I came across it when googling for sex change in plants)
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Aiko
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Re: Euphorbia obesa with male and female flowers?

Post by Aiko »

mmcavall wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 5:18 pm I have one relatively young obesa that I tagged as male, since it produced male flowers. However more recently it is producing female flowers. No sure what is going on.
I have noticed before that Euphorbia bupleurifolia has changed sex. I don't know if this happens often (probably not) but there have been reports of this happening before.

See also viewtopic.php?f=23&t=43165&p=361976&hil ... ex#p361973 for another report of this, next to mine.
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