maple update, April 28

Here's that maple bud I've been showing you, as of yesterday afternoon.





Here's something we haven't looked at since it was on the outside of the bud. Isn't this cool, all red and green stripes?





Here's a mise en scene view of a different ex-bud.





And a close up. You can see the fuzzy brown part that was on the outside of the bud, bottom center.





Close up of yet another ex-bud.





The unfertilized flowers are dropping like crazy. It was audible, when I was out there, unrequited flowers landing on the dry leaves.....





I was curious how the ovary shifts from flat to deep, so I brought in some flowers to dissect. I should have opened up a greater variety -- this one is apparently not going to be making any seed -- the base of the flower is very flat.

Maple flower, petals ripped off. You can really see in this first one how flat it is.







Here's the sprig from which I ripped the dissected flower. Three out of six are growing wings..... I should maybe take apart that one on the right, and see if the seeds are growing but haven't yet gotten to the wing stage.....