Often when you open the flower head you will see grubs settled in for a good meal. This is the same design as sunflower seeds: the hard outer shell with one seed inside. Inside the dry fruit will be a single seed (achene). Composite heads for insects are sort of like you parking and shopping at Walmart.ĭisc flowers start blooming on the outside and form a Fibonnaci spiral inwards.Įach fertilized flower produces a fruit below the petals (inferior ovary). Many different insects can easily land and forage for pollen and nectar over the course of several days. Soon the pollen is gone or dried up, and the stigma opens wide into a two-parted arch ready to receive pollen from another flower delivered by a pollinator helping in cross-pollination. The female pistil pushes through the press of male anthers to push out pollen grains that tend to stick to the outside of the stigma ready for pick up by pollinators. The inner flowers are “disc” flowers also with five petals which fuse to form a tube with flared tips.įive dark male anthers develop facing inward. Balsamroot has a ring of showy ray flowers which consist of 5 fused petals that are tongue-like (ligulate). The basic flower plan in the Composite Family is a set of many small flowers arrayed on a platform surrounded by green bracts to form a “head”. Let’s take a closer look using balsamroot as our first example. Sunflowers, asters, pussytoes, dandelions are all related. So please enjoy botanizing as you hike or just take a walk, sit and watch what is unfurling and flying about you.īalsamroot exhibits a classic form of the former Composite Family now called the Aster Family. By looking closely (including dissecting plants) and knowing more, flowers are more fun. We have also provided some information on how flowers “work”-which pollinators come by, how do they fit, where do the fruits and seeds form. To encouarge you, below are photos with ID tips of the most common species. Sageflats, hillsides, and ridges throughout Jackson Hole are a bloom! Now is the time to catch the balsamroot extravaganza and to look for other treats throughout.
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