Find this fruit!

Photo by Ned Harris 10/31/2012

Snapdragon Vine (Maurandya antirrhiniflora) aka Roving Sailor (my favorite common name) was blooming several weeks ago along the north side of the Bear Canyon bridge. The vine is winding through the Button Bush (Cephalanthus occidentalis), so look carefully. If you get a photo of a fruit, I'll publish it here!

For the advanced learner: Like most flowers, this one has male and female parts on the same flower; hummingbirds like it, insects like it, too. Ask your kid(s): How do you think the pollen gets from one flower to another?

Fuzzy Fruits

Photo by Matt Ball 10/23/2012

Some plants make fruits that look like fuzz balls. I've don't remember what this plant is exactly, but I'm pretty sure it's Telegraph Weed aka Camphor Weed (Heterotheca subaxillaris). I'm certain it's in the Sunflower family. Burroweed (Isocoma tenuisecta) has fruits like this, as do many other plants in this family. Go outside and find some!

Don't touch these fruits!

Photo by Matt Ball 10/23/2012

These spiky balls are the fruits of  Sacred Datura (Datura wrightii). They are about the size of a golf ball. Look carefully for them - but don't touch. And don't eat the seeds. If you do, you might not eat anything ever again.

As I've mentioned before, don't eat, drink, smoke, or lick anything (or anyone) you find in the desert. Especially not as a dare. That's just stupid.

For the advanced learner: Sacred Datura is in the Nightshade Family (Solanaceae). Other plants in this family also make toxins that can cause mild or major problems to animals who ingest the plant. Desert examples include: Desert Tobacco (Nicotiana obtusifolia), Tree Tobacco (Nicotiana glauca), and Nightshades (Solanum douglasii and S. elaeagnifolium); but others have edible parts. Edible fruits include those of the various desert Lycium species (Wolfberry). Tomatoes (fruits) and potatoes (underground stems) are also in this family!

Capsules are fruits

Photo by Matt Ball 10/23/2012

Plants in the Mallow family (Malvaceae) have interesting-looking fruits. The various Abutilon species (commonly known as Indian Mallow), Anoda species (Anoda), and the Sphaeralcea species (Globe Mallows) have fruits like the photo above. Each 'chamber' holds a seed. The plant above is Abutilon abutiloides.

Photo by Ned Harris 10/17/2010

Wild Cotton aka Desert Cotton (Gossypium thurberi) is also in the Mallow family. In the photo, you'll see a green (unripe) fruit in the background, and a split fruit in focus. The seeds are inside, along with a few sparse cotton fibers.

How about that?! More Fruits!

Photos by Matt Ball 10/23/2012

4 seeds in this photo, 3 greenish on the left, one dried in the center; 
outer 'shell' of the pod in pieces on the right

I found these on the Esperero Trail, after crossing the road and just out of sight of the Cactus Picnic Area. The plants look like one of the bladderpods. (Gordon's Bladderpod Physaria gordonii is my guess, as I saw the flowers in the same place in the spring. If that's case, though, these fruits have either stayed on the plant quite a while - or the plant bloomed 'late'! If you know what this really is, please send me an email.) The fruits look a bit like rounded popcorn kernels.

Returning to the question from yesterday: What does a plant's DNA tell it to do? DNA is like software (or, for those of us who weren't born yesterday, an instruction manual). Plant DNA (in very general terms) tells it to make roots, shoots, and leaves (not arms, legs, and lungs). All plants have evolved from the first (successful) plant over time periods the human animal cannot begin to fathom. Our desert plants have adapted to the (over) abundance of sun and (almost total) lack of water only by means of tweaks to this original software. I'll come back to this topic later : -)

Yes, they're fruits!

Photo by Matt Ball, 10/23/2012

These are fruits of the Common Cocklebur (Xanthium strumarium). If the barbs don't keep you away in the first place, please note that the seeds inside are highly toxic. Seriously.
DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT EATING THESE!  

But do think about this: What does a plant's DNA tell it to do? More tomorrow : -)

Pods are fruits

Photos by Matt Ball 10/23/2012

One of the seeds from this pod.

There are lots of plants in the pea family (Fabaceae) in Sabino Canyon. Many of these plants have fruits like the two acacias above, namely, pods. Pods are fruits. [Top photo is the fruit of the White-thorn Acacia (Acacia constricta); bottom is the fruit of Cat-claw Acacia (Acacia greggii).] Challenge your kids to think of other desert plants in the pea family that have pods as fruit. (Some hints: AZ state tree(s), mesquites, fairy dusters) How might these seeds get around and into the ground?

For the advanced learner: All plants make carbohydrates, fats, and proteins using energy from the sun. (Yet another thing that's 'magic' in the universe!) Plants in the Fabaceae family generally make more proteins than other plants. What we call 'beans' (soy beans, kidney beans, garbanzo beans and even peanuts; in other words: legumes) (but not green beans/string beans - those are fruits) are really seeds, usually in a pod (fruit) like the photos above. The seeds (and often the pods) are generally much higher in proteins (and fats) than the seeds of other plants.