If you're interested in using any of these photographs in any way, please contact me. Send an e-mail to naturalhistoryphotos(at)gmail.com. Thanks!

Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Yellow carpet


Here's another photo from our hike at Point Reyes on 29 March 2019.  I think the dominant yellow flower here is Point Reyes Blennosperma (Blennosperma nanum var. robustum).  When researching this species, I learned a fun fact: Blennosperma disk flowers exude a sticky fluid that contains the pollen.  

I wish I had known that before we encountered Blennosperma on our hike because I would have spent more time trying to get a better close-up photograph.  But here's one image where I zoomed inI think you can see some of the large white stamens (they look like white "dots" scattered among the disk flowers in the center) that will produce the pollen:


P.S.  "Blennosperma" might seem like an odd name, but it means "slimy seed" and apparently refers to a characteristic of this species the seeds become slimy when wet (according to the Jepson eFlora).

No comments: