2 Stock Doves flew west.
The photo is of a female Hazel flower bud, in front of male catkins.
Hazel is monoecious: that is, male and female flowers occur on the same tree. But the females can only be fertilised by pollen from a different tree. Each bud consists of several flowers, each of which has 4 red stigmas to catch wind-blown pollen. One fertilised flower can produce one nut, and the original bud will form a bunch of 1 to 4 nuts.
A recent episode of University Challenge had a team that had not heard of Hazel catkins: 4 brainboxes sadly divorced from the Natural World.
No comments:
Post a Comment