Beguiled by blooms: How I caught "Prickly Pear fever"
July 21, 2017
•
Leave a Comment
What is it about cactus flowers? I’ve always been a big fan, because, well, who wouldn’t be? But lately I’ve been beguiled by them. Or, maybe, obsessed.
On the way to Santa Fe with husband and dog, we wandered along the Rio Grande on a side road near the tiny town of Pilar. This is our typical method of travel – “let’s see where that goes,” one of...
Read the Full Post »
Sunflowers: Take a Closer Look
October 17, 2016
•
Leave a Comment
Here’s how we’ve absorbed the basic model of a flower without even realizing it. Because we’re expecting to see sepals, petals, stamens and pistils, we get sunflowers and their kin totally wrong. (More on sepals vs. petals here.)
I remember being astounded when a friend of mine who was getting his degree in Biology at the time told me the things I...
Read the Full Post »
Petals and sepals and bracts – oh my
September 07, 2016
•
Leave a Comment
Everybody knows what petals are. They’re the pretty stuff that make flowers flowers. We learned that back in elementary school.
But, seriously, what is a petal?
What, for that matter, is a sepal? What’s a bract? What’s this tepal you sometimes run across in field guides? How do you tell one from another? (See my gallery here and don't assume ever...
Read the Full Post »
Sepal secrets: What’s under the Monkshood’s hood?
August 09, 2016
•
Leave a Comment
One of Monkshood’s sepals does something really cool. It forms that distinctive “hood” shape that gives this plant its wonderful common name. The hood conceals a key clue to Monkshood’s heritage.
There are a couple of spurs under there – or “spurlike” petals.(1) Spurs should remind you of Columbines, of course, and also Delphiniums (Larkspurs). Li...
Read the Full Post »
Stem vs. stalk: Beyond that pretty flower face
August 01, 2016
•
Leave a Comment
The question came up when I was talking to a friend recently about Columbines (Aquilegia coerulea). We were trying to sort out the relationship between the leaves and the flower. She hadn’t put the two together before.
“Aren’t those two different plants?” she wondered.
It’s true the basal leaves, which are lobed, don’t look related to the trio of...
Read the Full Post »
© Kristin Andersen Photography