Captured in this morning's dawn light, three she-oaks stand glowing. The keen eye will discern that two of the she-oaks are coloured with a dusting of orange, while the one on the left is a bright green. Allocasuarina verticillata, the latin for the type of she-oak that grows around Windgrove on its nutrient poor rocky hillsides, has both a male and female tree with the male flowering in long drooping golden-orange spikes this time of year. The air borne pollen then travels over to the female tree and pollinates a tiny red flower resulting in a cone just smaller than the average walnut. It interests me that the female of this particular species gets the nuts.
Posted by Peter Adams at 09:09 AM. Filed under: Flora •
(0) Trackbacks • Permalink