zea

there are stands of mixed maize and teosinte around the yard...most of which withstood monday' storm with relatively little falling over..it has been an interesting season for the grasses to date...

some have reached impressive heights...

and whichever that nine foot behemoth is ( i am thinking maize ) it has begun to flower with no sign of silks yet that i can find...the zea mexicana has bloomed and where i found silks a few days ago...

distinct ears are forming..this variety has a shorter season than northern tepehuan and so should again produce viable seed...all the teosinte in the yard was grown from seed produced out there last season...a quantity of which i have frozen for the future...there will be frozen seed this season as well if things work out...

last year i had plants that produced rows of husk-less seeds ( which were viable, some of these plants are from that seed ) and this season i seem to be getting husk-less seed forming at the base of the flowers...all of which i will presume to be normal behavior until ( if ) i learn otherwise...hoping too harvest these and see what comes of them next year...

i know the header says "zea"...however here is some megachile that also survived the storm to go along with it ( even if she is on a sunflower )