Friday, June 5, 2015

Close-up of Cat Flowers

Alert Gardener Gail asked if she could see a close-up of the weird blooms of orchid Catasetum tenebrosum. Here you are!
Just to make them even more, um, odd, some Cats will discharge their "superglue" pollen quite violently onto passersby, kind of like the creepy, make-em-all-happy plants in the Star Trek Episode "This Side of Paradise". Sadly, Cat's pollen has no similar apparent effect on Earth mammals. There are about 50 species of Catasetum orchids, all from Central and South America, and the West Indies.
And now, a gratuitous photograph of kayaking in the tropics, ah! This is our local nature preserve.



2 comments:

  1. Hi Marla,
    Thank you for the Cat Close-up! The second photo reminds me of the days long ago when my brother and I would canoe up the Eau Gallie River looking for manatees. They used to hang there in the 1960s.
    Gail

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  2. By coincidence, Gail, I was just kayaking yesterday and saw a large herd of manatees, such sweet creatures!

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