Comic Relief

I could go on for another year or two, but I'll give you a break from my rants about plants, and leave you with a comic from fellow herbivore Dan Piraro.

Anne says: Plants are amazing!

More plant eaters

Photo by Marty Horowitz 11/7/2012

Stopping for a drink from one of the remaining pools in the dam area are two White-tailed deer.

Say: ho-HO-ba

Photos by Matt Ball 10/29/2012

Spent flowers from the male plant

Jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis) is another dioecious plant. Fruit above from - you guessed it - the female plant, spent flowers below from the male plant. The seed (nut) inside (in the middle, above) is high in fat. This fat is saturated (i.e., doesn't bond easily with oxygen, thus not likely to become rancid; fats like this are relatively rare in the plant kingdom) and stable at high temperatures. This fat is used commercially, most notably in place of sperm whale oil. The seeds are more or less indigestible to most mammals.

Desert Broom is in bloom

Photo by Ned Harris 10/31/2012

Photo by Matt Ball 10/29/2012

Desert Broom (Baccharis sarothroides) has been blooming for a few months now; if you find yourself sneezing at this time of year, Desert Broom is the likely reason. Many of us are allergic to the pollen. It's dioecious, too. I think the top photo shows the female flowers, bottom the male, but please correct me if you know for sure. (We'll all know once the female develops seeds.) You can see clear differences if there are multiple plants around.

Two Houses

In plants (as in animals), the male parts contribute pollen (sperm), the female parts contribute the ovule (egg); the female grows the seed - the product of the combination of pollen and ovule. (Details about flower parts here.)
The vast majority of  flowering plants have male and female parts on the same flower.
Some flowering plants have separate male and female flowers on the same plant (monoecious); e.g., Mexican Blue Oak (Quercus oblongifolia).
And some flowering plants have male flowers and female flowers on separate plants (dioecious).
Let's look at some dioecious plants (and their fruits).

Photos by Matt Ball 10/23/2012

The Four-wing Saltbush (Atriplex canescens) grows separate plants for each sex. The fruits (above) have 4 wings, hence the common name. Ask your kid(s): "These are the fruits, which sex is this plant (above)?"

Male flowers never grow fruits. What do they contribute?

Same species, different sexes. Which one is which? 

There are loads of Four-wing Saltbush plants (of both sexes) at the Rillito River Park, starting at Craycroft,  on the north side and heading west. (I'm sure there are more elsewhere, but this is where I've been.) You can very easily tell the sexes apart now.The female plants are absolutely laden with fruits.
Loads of Desert Broom plants along the Rillito as well...

Star's fruit

Photo by Ned Harris 11/14/2012

Click on photo for a larger view (that option is always available). The fruits of the (Isolated) Blazing Star (Mentzelia isolata) are oblong and fuzzy. Saw these in the riparian area above the dam, growing around the Sacred Datura that held the Keeled Treehopper herd.

Sailor's Fruit

Photo by Ned Harris 11/14/2012

Found a few Roving Sailor fruits on the plant Ned photographed here.