Tuesday, June 18, 2013

seed heads and grass flowers

grasses mostly flower in a more sedate fashion than plants trying to attract pollinators and the grasses in the pgp are no exception...the hopi blue maize in the top photo ( with a health stand of teosinte as a backdrop ) is a few months away from flowering...maize is usually wind pollinated, which is why the flower is at the top of the stalk, although self-pollination can occur ( i only had two plants last season and both produced ears of corn...they were planted next to each other an could have cross-pollinated or self-pollinated...with so many more plants this season there is more room for wind pollination...i think )...eastern gamagrass is a self-pollinator and the pollen from the flowers on the lower part of the terminal spike ( which are just starting to emerge in the second photo ) fertilizes the seeds on the top half... like maize, the wheat grass from kansas in the third photo is another usually wind pollinated plant, but can also self-pollinate...the asparagus isn't a grass and it has a bit showier flowers ( fourth photo ) because it is insect pollinated and needs to be attractive to them...even so they are pretty bland as flowers go...the bottom photo is of the forage variety of wheat grass which looks remarkably like the wheat grass from the land institute ( what a shocker ) and there is doubtlessly a chance of cross-pollination here as the wind is usually out of something of a westerly direction and the forage wheat grass is on the west side of the garden..so...minimalist, functional flowers for the self-pollinators, somewhat larger ( or more numerous ) flowers for the wind pollinated varieties, and something a bit more attractive for the insect pollinated plants...they're all in the pgp and even though it's only june reproductive processes are started..more as it develops.

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