Rhododendron & Azalea News - Ideas for Chapters

Rhododendron and
Azalea News

Spring 2009 Vol. 12 No. 1

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Ideas for Chapters
Great truths about growing old		Don Wallace of the Eureka Chapter came up with an article in 2006 that will make each one laugh a little and think a little, too, of life down the road! It will make you chuckle, too! Growing up is mandatory...growing old is optional. Forget the health food...I need all the preservatives I can get. When you fall down, you wonder what else you can do while you are down there. You're getting old when you get the same sensation from a rocking chair that you once got from a roller coaster. It's frustrating when you know all the answers but nobody bothers to ask you questions. Time may be a great healer...but it's a lousy beautician. Wisdom comes with age...but sometimes age comes alone.

Improve rhododendron words		Don Wallace of the Eureka Chapter suggested "polyploidy" for this month's word. Here goes! The meaning of the first part of the word is clear to all of us. It means many, much, or numerous, from the Greek polu. The second half of the word, ploid, is not so obvious. It means something like "of the self." Id, the operative part, was derived from the Greek idios for individual, private, or peculiar...the original meaning of idiot was a private person.
two sets of chromosomes		In the late nineteenth century a German geneticist used the same term as Fred used in psychology to denote what was then known as the germplasm...and what we now know as the number of sets of chromosomes. The number of sets of chromosomes is important because it controls the outcomes of sexual reproduction. Most of the organism we are familiar with have two complete sets of chromosomes. One set is inherited from each parent. Each set has all the genes for everything that makes up the organism and its life functions. That means each characteristic is controlled by two genes, each on a separate chromosome.
diploid cells...		Multi-celled animals and higher plants are typically like this in the form in which we see them. They are said to be "diploid". Diploid cells must produce offspring cells with only one set of chromosomes to be passed on in sexual reproduction. These cells are called "haploid" and are known to us as gametes or eggs and sperm. When a cell duplicates its chromosomes to produce two new cells, the division is not always complete, leaving a cell with more or fewer sets of chromosomes than normal. The result of two gametes combining to produce a cell with more than two sets of chromosomes is uniformly fatal in higher animals...but not in plants. For example...if a normal (haploid) gamete combines with one that didn't divide properly...and is still diploid, a triploid is produced.
Rhododendron diaprepes...		Rhododendron diaprepes var. 'Garguantua' is a triploid. Its leave and the plant in general are larger than specimens of the species itself with diploid cells. The general term for organism possessing more than the usual numbers of sets of chromosomes is polyploid. Triploid plants will typically not reproduce successfully but...if the numbers of sets are even...sexual reproduction in higher plants can result in large numbers of sets of chromosomes. The resulting polyploids will have larger and larger body parts s the chromosome sets increase. Farmers...before we knew about polyploidy...took advantage of the phenomenon to produce bigger and bigger tomatoes and other crops.
be thankful for errors...		So, the next time you are buying or growing a beefsteak tomato thank the process that produces errors in cell division to give us polyploids.

Things needed for a full life.		"Just living is not enough," said the butterfly. "One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower." - Hans Christian Andersen