Ladies first: the female Welwitschia is above. The photo below is of the male Welwitschia.
A plant that is either male or female is dioecious. Holly and Asparagus are examples of plants that are also dioecious. Ginkgo is another--most commercially sold Ginkgo trees are male, because the fruit of the female Ginkgo has a foul odor.
Plant romance--in this case, of relative youngsters. The two examples above from the Huntington Desert Conservatory are babes. If you google up examples in situ from the Namibian desert, this plant forms a pile of linguini-like foliage as tall as a man's shoulder.
Then there is plant aging. Ferocactus schwartii starts life very spiny, and matures to a spineless, most elegant silhouette:
I've long admired this plant, but it was only on our last visit I noticed the tag said "from seed, 1970".
One idea from the recent Succulent symposium was expressed by Tony Avent: that we see plants at this moment in time--they are continuing to evolve to new forms. In our lifespan, we see only one single frame of an epic film.
We who love plants--isn't it lovely to know they are far more worthy of our love and admiration than we can ever imagine?
A plant that is either male or female is dioecious. Holly and Asparagus are examples of plants that are also dioecious. Ginkgo is another--most commercially sold Ginkgo trees are male, because the fruit of the female Ginkgo has a foul odor.
Plant romance--in this case, of relative youngsters. The two examples above from the Huntington Desert Conservatory are babes. If you google up examples in situ from the Namibian desert, this plant forms a pile of linguini-like foliage as tall as a man's shoulder.
Then there is plant aging. Ferocactus schwartii starts life very spiny, and matures to a spineless, most elegant silhouette:
I've long admired this plant, but it was only on our last visit I noticed the tag said "from seed, 1970".
One idea from the recent Succulent symposium was expressed by Tony Avent: that we see plants at this moment in time--they are continuing to evolve to new forms. In our lifespan, we see only one single frame of an epic film.
We who love plants--isn't it lovely to know they are far more worthy of our love and admiration than we can ever imagine?
Your closing comment: you definitely got that right.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
ReplyDeleteI love the Ferocactus. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we humans all became smooth and elegant as we aged 45 years?
ReplyDeleteI was thinking that same thing!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful photos of lovely plants. I always love Huntington's exhibits. I still have a couple cacti (now about 15+ years old) from one of their plant sales.
ReplyDelete