Where is this mystery plant located? What did the flowers look like? (Tubular, some number of petals, etc.) This would help to pin down a family for the mystery plant.
I am glad we got that cleared up. Just as well it wasn't down the back, round the corner, past the oak tree behind the outhouse or we would have had no chance of identifying it.
If you participate in rec.gardens regularly, you would know that Higgs Boson is in southern California, in the Los Angeles basin not far from the ocean.
!!! Of course you're right about sequence of flowers and seeds, but I rema in baffled. I often looked at that plant, trying to figure it out, so any flowers must have been REALLY "insignificant".
(This brings up an unrelated question which I hope to research as time perm its: Which plants have large,showy flowers and -- down the scale -- small insign ificant ones. What survival needs do each kind serve? Climate dependant, no doubt, but what else. Are there anomalies? Which, and why? Etc. Many q uestions. If anyone already has references, would be appreciated.)
Guess I'll take a picture up to nabe (neighbor) nursery & see if anybody re cognizes it. I do plan to plant some of the seeds & see what happens.
Any other garden group youse guys could recommend? Might as well spread the net wider.
Well, yes, flowers may be hard to spot. Grass seed-heads are actually clusters of "flowers" and if you look at the right time you can see the stamens pretty easily and the stigmas if you look closely.
Among broad-leafed plants, the flowers for members of the Goosefoot and Buckwheat families are not much to look at either, and might be mistaken for seeds right from the start. Some plants produce self-pollinated "cleistogamous" flowers which do not have petals and never open. (Curiously enough, some of our most colorful garden plants such as Violas and Impatiens may produce cleistogamous flowers, especially when they are growing under stressful conditions.)
appreciated.)
Wind pollinated plants do not need showy flowers. They just need to stick their flowers out where they can catch the wind.
Cleistogamous flowers use less energy to produce seeds and are "good bets" for plants that growing under hostile conditions or where pollinators are unavailable.
Showy* flowers are generally pollinated by animals (insects, birds, bats and sometimes other small mammals).
*Showy not necessarily only to the eye, but also to the nose; some flowers with powerful scents are not that impressive to look at, for example, mignonette (Reseda odorata).
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