Goldenrod Study

           
             Here I am looking at the size of the flower head compared to the length of the stem. The stem was broken off about 5 cm from ground level. Yes, there is snow on the ground already this November and all the leaves of this plant are gone.

            

            Because I started my study late in the season some of the flowers were well past their prime. This is a group of flowers on one stem.

            Looking closer one can see more of the individual flowers. Each flower is made up of 3 to 7 disc florets, 10 to 15 strap florets, and surrounded by 14 to 16 phyllaries.

            The entire flower is only 2.5 to 4.5 mm tall. For comparison, a dime is about 1 mm thick and, if you have saved any, a penny is about 1.25 mm thick.

            Here I used a scalpel to split a flower in two pieces. You can see two disc florets, parts of three strap florets and parts of two phyllaries as well as some of the pappus, i.e. the hair like appendages.

           

            In this photo one can see some stigmas from the ray florets waiting for pollen to come in to fertilize the pistil hidden below. Ray florets have only female parts. Disc florets have both male parts for producing pollen and female parts for producing seeds. I also just learned that goldenrod plants can not fertilize their own flowers. They have to get pollen from another plant via some insect. Pollen is too heavy to move by air which is why one cannot get "hay fever" from goldenrods.

            Very close up photos from the microscope showing the relative sizes of two disc florets. The numbers are for comparison only and do not stand for any real measurements.

Saturday - Photos from the Week

            On Thursday, Fleur-Ange and I had a walk on the rail trail starting in Harrisburg. Most, but not all, of the leaves were off the trees. The Oaks were still hanging on to their leaves as well as a few shrubs.

             We walked for 2.4 kilometres on the trail and then turned around as Fleur-Ange had a meeting with one of her friends that she needed to go to. Our turnaround point was a pond with a skim of ice and one bright tree on the far side.

            On Friday, we had our first good snowfall of the season. We had about 10 cm on the ground. Sadie and I walked some of the trails on our property.

            I went to the RBG for my volunteer job on Friday and also spent time walking about looking for flowers above the snow. I found 9 species that were not buried.

            Below is the American Witch-hazel from the RBG's Woodland Garden.

Monday Random Thoughts

            We have a small oak on the property and I noticed today how it was changing colour. The two photos are 9 days apart. I was standing at a slightly different place for each photo but I don't think it was that that made the colours different. I do not have a positive ID yet but think it is a Black Oak.

            The Highbush Cranberry bushes have almost no berries on them this year compared to the last several years.

            The needles on the European Larch have gone from golden to beige in colour and many of them have dropped off.

            I found a young English Hawthorn tree that I had not seen before beside one of the trails this morning. It is already just a bit taller than I so it has been there a few years without my being aware of it.

            A large flock of Starlings was in a tree at the west side of the property. They, or another flock just like them, were on the ground under our feeder yesterday.

            I went back to the oak today, Tuesday, and found stellate hairs on the underside of the leaf in the vein axils. That appears to be one of the attributes of the Black Oak / (Quercus velutina).

Blue Jay & Red-bellied Woodpecker

            Here are two of our regular bird feeder birds as captured by Fleur-Ange. (I did not have the patience to wait for such a good photo.)

   © Fleur-Ange Lamothe

Saturday 6 k

            

            I ran a slow 6 kilometres this morning on the Brantford Waterfront Trail with the Road Rebel Running Group. I did not push at all as I am still in recovery mode from last weeks marathon. I am certainly glad that the marathon was last week as this morning we ran in wind chills of -12°C. The marathon would have been extra difficult at those temperatures! I hope it does not get too much colder for running this winter. If it drops to a wind chill, or temperature, of -20°C, I plan on running inside on a treadmill or on the indoor track.