Dear readers and subscribers: while the rest of the internet goes on and on about all of the topics it goes on and on about incessantly, here at the Sanguine Root, in our little corner of the internet, we are measuring Mayapples with a tape measure and discussing a very fascinating aspect of this specie’s morphological variations between New England and Southeastern Pennsylvania!
So welcome to this respite and its accompanied breath of fresh air as we discuss the differences in morphology between like populations.
Upon immediate observation, the Mayapples that grow in and around Monson Massachusetts are much bigger in every way than the ones that grow in Southeastern Pennsylvania. They are noticeably taller, and have much larger leaves and leaf spans. The stems are twice the thickness. It is a startling difference. I’ve not yet found anything written about this in the literature and would love to see it. We are going to present our hard data and make some reasoned arguments, so fasten your seatbelts.
So this is a large patch of Podophyllum peltatum, that I planted from a locally sourced donated specimen. The picture below has the leaf span clocking in at almost 22 inches!
Why are Massachusetts Mayapples so much bigger, larger, wider, taller than Pennsylvania Mayapples? The simplest explanation is probably the correct one: The only Mayapples that survived in Massachusetts are ones that can withstand the late Spring snowstorms, so the ones that had a genetic variation favoring larger and thus stronger stems survived over time, leading to the existing populations overwhelmingly having these features. They can survive the occasional late Spring snowstorm and still make it to flower. The Pennsylvania Mayapples are to a less of degree likely to have this problem and thus are more diminutive in their morphology. Why grow larger or any more taller than they need to?
Genetic variations within species between geographic regions is an endlessly fascinating topic!
The stem base at one inch! In Southeastern Pennsylvania, these are 1/2 inch! What a difference! Below is my cultivated patch.
