af

 

af (Afila)

The leaves on afila plants (af/af) look quite unlike those on plants without this mutation. Rather than having pinately compound leaflets, afila leaves have only tendrils - and lots of them. The primary photosynthetic surfaces on an afila plant are the stipules, which are the "leafy" looking structures on the images above. While the photosynthetic efficiency of an afila plant is somewhat compromised, this mutation has beeu used to a limited extent in cultivar development, because afila plants have the virtue of "standing" well, as in evidence in the image on the right above. When densly planted, the tendrils of neighboring plants vine together extensively, and the planting tends to be self supporting in a tall canopy. This holds the pods well above the ground and out of reach of rodents and some fungal pathogens.

The afila phenotype first arose spontaneously in 1958. The afila locus maps near one end of linkage group IB. This collection contains 113 accessions that are described at the afila locus. If you would like to query on the af locus, click here.