Thursday, May 14, 2015

Birch Tree Catkins & Sunrise

Andy | Thursday, May 14, 2015 | | Best Blogger Tips

Catkins are an inflorescence, or cluster, of single sexed flowers on a spike. They tend to be produced on woody shrubs and trees such as oak, alder, birch, poplar, beech, hornbeam, sweet chestnut, hazel and willow. Silver birch is monoecious, meaning both male and female flowers (catkins) are found on the same tree, from April to May. Male catkins are long and yellow-brown in colour, and hang in groups of two to four at the tips of shoots, like lambs' tails. Female catkins are smaller, short, bright green and erect. After successful pollination (by wind), female catkins thicken and change colour to a dark crimson. Masses of tiny seeds are borne in autumn, which are dispersed by wind.

13 comments:

  1. One of the more successful seeding methods of nature but it gives a lot of mesh on the roads here.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very nice Andy, Tom The Backroads Traveller

    ReplyDelete
  3. You see nice things getting up so early.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I had no idea, thanks for the lesson.

    ReplyDelete
  5. A very informative post, Andy! ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Lovely photo, and very informative post. Nature is amazing isn't it!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I love the silhouette and sunset!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Great botany lesson...thank you! And a nice shot to accompany it.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Interesting info...our birch trees are loaded with them!

    ReplyDelete

Blog Archive