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Originally Posted by GreenFin
I'm unfamiliar with the term "persistent male flowers." I tried googling and did not find anything helpful.
It seems like it should mean something like, "the male flowers persistently keep hanging on rather than quickly dropping off." But that definition would contradict your examples, since the plant you've labeled 'Williams' is the one that still has male flowers and the Gran Nains are the ones without them. [I'm calling the underdeveloped/aborted fruit hanging below the bunch in your 3rd pic the male flowers. Is this correct?]
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Yes, that is basically correct.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GreenFin
So does "persistent male flowers" mean the opposite of what I guessed? What exactly does "persistent male flowers" mean in this context?
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In the context of the photos above, you must look at the flowers directly above the male bud. The ones in the third photo of 'Williams' right after the last fruits are not really the male flowers, they are transitional and are often persistent on any cultivar.
If you take a look at the first photo, it clearly has totally persistent flowers all along the rachis. In the the second photo, the rachis is mostly clean, but right above the bud, there are dried persistent bracts and flowers, they have obviously been falling off, but they are still semi-persistent. Sometimes environmental conditions can change the degree to which the flower and bract persistence is expressed.