Sex ratios from seed in six families of Scandia geniculata (Apiaceae)

Abstract Seeds were collected from open-pollinated, sexed, and tagged field plants of Scandia geniculata (Forst. f.) J. Wyndham Dawson, a perennial gynodioecious member of the Apiaceae. Seedlings were grown and sexed each year as they reached flowering until all plants had flowered or died. Sex ratios of progeny varied among families; the sex ratios are consistent with a single locus nuclear model of inheritance, with femaleness recessive. Among the progeny, male plants flowered when younger on average than females. There appeared to be no difference among families in the level of inconstancy of male progeny.