Abstract
In cucumber plants with only one female flower retained between the 6th and 10th nodes from the base, removing all leaves except one between 2 nodes above and 2 nodes below the fruit increased the occurrence and degree of fruit curvature. The concave side of the crooked fruit, however, always faced toward the tendril on the same node with the fruit regardless of the position on the stem of the retained leaf.
14CO2 was administered to a single leaf between the 5th and 9th nodes of plants with one fruit on the 7th node. After 2 hours, the distribution pattern of 14C activity among 10 vascular bundles in the receptacle of the fruit varied with the position of the treated leaf, whereas the direction of fruit curvature was invariable and was not influenced by the position of the treated leaf.
These results appeared to show that the direction of curvature of cucumber fruit was not determined directly by the inclination in the pathway of photosynthates into the fruit.
