queen anne's lace - central flower

[Joe]

I just want to share this, in case anyone is as fascinated by this as I am: I find that I notice a lot more since I've started photograhing flowers - I never noticed before but there is a tiny purple-black flower right in the center of all those other white flowers that make up a Queen Anne's Lace flower. From what I've now read, this central flower is sterile and will not produce seed - it might be there to attract pollinators. My pictures:

that was obvious to everyone else, but I find it pretty interesting).

[Bill R]

Very interesting Joe. We have lots of Queen Anne's Lace around here but I have never seen one with a flower that color. There is a whole field of it not far from me and the next time I'm out with my camera I'll see if I can find one like yours.

[Tyra Trevellyn]

Joe, thanks!!! I'd never grown Queen Anne's Lace before and I was wondering when I saw that the other week when my QAL had begun to open.....but promptly forgot to look it up. I don't believe that all the flower umbels have this flower (at least I can't see it) so once pollinators are attracted to the plants, it must be all they need.

I was also getting kinda thrilled to notice that some of my QAL looked as if it was going to be the pink sort.....but it opened as white as the rest of the plants.

Thanks again....I was poking at that deep red flower, thinking that perhaps it was a speck of petal from another plant.

Best, Tyra nNJ usa z7wet and wetter

[Alice Gless]

Here's my contribution, not as expertly taken as yours. The one I photographed seems to have two purple florets and purple on the stems as well although I can't tell for sure.

posted a picture from another part of the country in the photography newsgroup and it was the same way. I made mention of it, but no answers.

Joe wrote:

[Roberta L. Mueller]

No, Bill, he means the little red blossom is IN the single flower. It is very tiny and off center. You have to look for it. I always wondered about that too. BTW, they press beautifully and once I received a Christmas card from Germany with a gold-painted QAL flower that looked like a (gold) snowflake. I also made Christmas cards one year using them.

Roberta