« Previous Day: Meconopsis betonicifolia |
Main
| Next Day: Mimulus guttatus »
May 13, 2008: Boschniakia strobilacea
May 13, 2007:
Rosa 'Ausmas'
May 13, 2006:
Lobelia tupa
May 13, 2005:
Enkianthus campanulatus
July 30, 2006 : Lobelia excelsa
Keywords: Campanulaceae | Lobelia excelsa Bonpl. | Strybing Arboretum, San Francisco, California
Written by Daniel: Eric in San Francisco (Eric in SF@Flickr) shared today's image via the BPotD Flickr Group Pool | original image). Eric is very fortunate in being able to frequently visit the San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum where he takes these great photos. Thanks yet again, Eric.
Written by Douglas Justice: Lobelias nearly always provoke interesting conversations amongst botanists and horticulturists. Many of the larger lobelia flowers (such as in Lobelia excelsa) are red, tubular, and bird-pollinated. In all lobelias, the flowers are upside down (i.e., twisted through 180 degrees as they develop), although this is hardly apparent to the casual observer. Lobelias are protandrous (compare protogynous), which helps prevent self pollination. The anthers form a tube through which the piston-like style picks up pollen. The protruding style is not receptive at the time the pollen is ripe and thusly presented to pollinators at the tip of the closed styles (as seen in Eric's excellent photo). Eventually (presumably after the self pollen is removed or no longer viable), the style branches split open and expose their pollen-receptive surfaces.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at July 30, 2006 12:00 AM
Read recent comments on all BPotD Entries
Comments
Posted by: hollis at July 30, 2006 4:35 PM
Thanks, Daniel! The thing that really drew me to the plant and then to the composition was the height of the flowerhead - at my eye level or just a little lower. A magnificent sight.
Posted by: Eric in SF at July 30, 2006 7:16 PM
Thanks for this!
I homeschool 2 boys and we were looking at plant classification today. Why was my eldest son's plant classified in the order Asterales? One reason given was "plunger pollination". Your photo and description enabled us to understand this reason:-)
Posted by: Linda at May 21, 2007 3:52 AM
Please share your comments about the photograph(s) and accompanying write-up. Telling a story about the subject of the photograph(s) is also much appreciated! If you have a gardening question, the best place to ask is on the UBC Botanical Garden Forums. Thank you!
Post a comment
XML Feeds: Atom | RSS 2.0 | RSS 1.0 | What is RSS? | RSS Tools
Botany Photo of the Day and all associated images are licensed under a Creative Commons License except when otherwise specified in the accompanying written entry.
About Botany Photo of the Day | Submit Your Photos via Flickr | Submit Your Photos via UBCBG's Discussion Forums
Botany Photo of the Day is a project of the UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research, located in Vancouver, British Columbia Canada. UBC BGCPR is a department of the Faculty of Land and Food Systems within The University of British Columbia.
The 'plunger pollination' described above is one of the traits uniting the Asterales, including all composites as well as other members of the Campanulaceae ... or so the experts say :) In any case, it's a fun thing to look for.