This
is how flowers look on a tiller of a rice plant.
Rice
flowers occur in a group on a tiller,
and
this type of flowering pattern is called multiple inflorescence,
in
contrast to more general type of flowering,
single
inflorescence,
which
is one flower per tiller.
We can find other
examples of inflorescence on sunflowers,
pineapple flowers,
and so on.
One
rice plant has about 5-15 tillers in general, and about 200 flowers are
on one tiller. Thus, one rice plant produce thousands of grains.
Multiple
inflorescence is often favored by the natural selection in the evolution,
mainly due to its capability to attract more pollinators
for
a longer period of time (because each flower blooms at different time).
However,
rice does not fertilizes with the help of pollinators but with one of wind.
The benefit of multiple inflorescence on rice plants may be some
other aspect of aggregated flowers, such as a higher possibility of fertilization,
as more pollens are available overall.
MORE about multiple inflorescence
>> GO TO Panicle
Page !!
Introduction | Flowers&Fruit
| Roots | Stems
| Leaves
© Thomas L. Rost 1997
Section of Plant Biology
Division of Biological Sciences
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS