The green, spherical items are ovaries, the future fruits, which were absent in the previous photo. It was easy to find a tree bearing the flowers shown below: Learning this, I went out looking for Gumbo-Limbos with more developed female parts. Bisexual flowers also are known as "perfect" and "hermaphroditic." Gumbo-Limbos, then, produce three kinds of flowers: strictly male ones strictly female ones, and bisexual ones. Bisexual flowers are those with functioning male and female parts in the same blossom. Seeing that, I got curious and learned that Gumbo-Limbos are "dioecious" (male and female flowers on separate plants) or "polygamodioecious" (having bisexual and male flowers on some plants, and bisexual and female flowers on others). Not until the above flowers were looked at under magnification was it apparent that the blossoms' male stamens were robust but no female parts were in evidence. during the dry season in coastal Yucatan, ants will rely on the nectar produced on the flowers and other reproductive structures as their main liquid energy source." Supporting this observation, now we find Gumbo-Limbo flowers crawling with ants, shown below: In our last Newsletter we found ants abounding among Black Mangrove flowers. In the above photo you see that the season's fresh-looking, compound leaves also are emerging, and you wonder how a tree can be issuing such lushness while rooted in powdery-dry soil and daily having blisteringly hot air gush around it. Though the tree's amassed flowers can be seen from afar, the individual blossoms are small, but tightly clustered in spike-like, panicle-type inflorescences, as seen below: The Gumbo-Limbo's flowering is eye-catchingly prodigious, as shown below: Now at the very hot, dry end of the rainy season, Gumbo-Limbos are among the trees issuing flowers despite the continued absence of rain, possibly with the strategy of having ripe fruits ready for dissemination when the rains do return - which is any time. The Gumbo-Limbo, locally called Chakah and technically BURSERA SIMARUBA, is one of the most commonly encountered trees in humid, tropical Mexico. From the Newsletter issued from Río Lagartos, on the north-central coast of Yucatán, MÉXICO
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |