Wednesday, April 10, 2013

In bloom: bigtooth aspen

In bloom this week we have another wind pollenated species: bigtooth aspen (Populus grandidentata). Bigtooth aspen is dioecious, meaning that some trees have entirely male flowers, while other trees have entirely female flowers. The tree has a specialized type of flower common to many other wind pollinated species: the catkin. Catkins are inflorescences, or clusters of flowers, that are specialized for wind based pollen dispersal. They don't feature show petals, but they are very effective at getting a lot of pollen out there. Because bigtooth aspen usually grows in large clonal groves, it's not uncommon to see all the trees in an area blooming at exactly the same time.

Previously:

In bloom: silver maple

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