Willowend
by Kathy Bassett
Title
Willowend
Artist
Kathy Bassett
Medium
Photograph - Photography - Photo Painting - Digital Art
Description
A rendering of sorts to develop the essence of the pussy willow plant. Most of what people see and think of as pussy willows are, in fact, the male flowering parts, or male catkins. The female catkins tend to develop and open a little later than the males, but they can form attractive pussy willows, too. And what, to us, is the most attractive stage in the pussy willow is actually very early on in the emergence of the catkin. The soft, silvery hairs that we see are the "fur coat" that helps to keep the developing reproductive parts warm. Remember, pussy willows emerge in early spring when it's still quite cold. But when the sun shines, the temperature of the center of the catkin can rise above air temperatures by trapping the heat from the sun with it's insulating hairs. This additional warming aids in the development of the pollen within the anthers and of the ovules within the carpels. The willow flowers are fully "open" when the yellow pollen-bearing anthers are protruding and the stigmas are visible. (My mother always threw out the pussy willows when the yellow pollen started falling all over the place.)
Another way that willows are atypical involves the way that the pollen is transferred from the anthers to the stigma. Most plants that have catkins or other "non-attractive" flowers (as opposed to the brightly petaled structures we normally think of as being flowers) are wind-pollinated. That is, the pollen grains are simply released on the breeze and the plants count on chance to bring some of their pollen to rest on stigmas of their own species. Close relatives of the willows, the poplars (Populus spp.), all spread their pollen in this manner.
Uploaded
July 7th, 2016
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