What are the white or reddish plumes seen in some sugarcane fields during winter and spring?
Plumes are the flowers and seed heads of the sugarcane plant. Each plume consists of several thousand tiny flowers. Each flower is capable of producing one seed. The cool winter weather in Florida ordinarily prevents development of viable seeds. During breeding for variety development, special precautions are taken to produce viable seed. Figure 4. Sugarcane flowers, which produce seeds, are pictured in this November 2001 photo. Because seeds from a single sugarcane flower differ genetically, pieces of sugarcane stalk are planted, rather than seeds, to produce new plants that are genetically identical to the parent plant.
