Purple glad

One of my gladiolus stems broke off in the wind, so I brought it inside and took the opportunity to look down its throat.

The white structure is the stigma, the female part of the flower. The stamens (male) are at its base.

The gladiolus has three anthers, three stigmas. And interesting shadows.

Side view. The pollen is purple.

 

Another view. Just because.

Between the flower and the fruit

Flower petals, glorious though they may be, mask an inner beauty. I caught up to these ex-flowers beside the path at Oyster Bay.

Unidentified tree; now that the petals have dropped, I have to wait for the fruit to recognize the tree.

Bracts like fuzzy stars, and a beetle wrapped in yesterday's yellowed petal.

Unexpected emerald

In a purple petunia.

Anthers (with pollen) and stigma (glowing green)

Zooming out.

How old is a flower?

Bees can tell.

An older flower, and a honey bee with full bags of pollen.

And a young flower.

And this gumweed flower is half-way between the two above.

Gumweeds are composites; their flower heads contain many smaller flowers, the petal-like ray flowers around the edge, and a mass of disc flowers in the centre. The individual flowers mature first at the outer edge, then progressively inward, with the youngest flowers in the middle.

Look again at the flowers above; the younger flowers are still closed, the recently mature ones, where the bees are busy harvesting, have protruding anthers loaded with pollen, and on the outer edge, the tiny flowers are busy making seeds. Each single flower will produce one seed.

The ray flowers are sterile.

Still here. Moving on tomorrow.