Seemannia sylvatica Up Close and Personal

Here are a couple of the flowers off of a Seemannia sylvatica plant.

Trying to get the flower cut off from the plant bumped it just enough to tear open part of the pollen sacs and spill some of the pollen.

If you look at the rim of the flower the dark dots aren't flat and simply pigment, they are

raised little structures that seem to exude a sticky substance. Does it attract insects, or help stick pollen to either itself of others?

Along with the raised structures from the photo above, there are chunks of pollen (the lighter yellow stuff) all over from when the pollen sac burst. Note how cool the 'hairs' on the flower are. They are sort of a translucent pink like the flower's petals.

Here's another look at the pollen sacs.














This is a different older flower that was cut open. A surprise was inside. There is all sorts of gray mold of some sort growing there in strands.

The raised structures similar to the first couple of photos are now withering and declining like the rest of this older flower.

The pistal has just a small amount of pollen on it.

I tried to break open another of the pollen sacs to see more of the pollen. It comes out in sort of fluffy chunks and seems to spread all over pretty easily. It's the lighter white/yellow dusty stuff on the red and yellow flower petals.

And this shot is an overall view of the flower's interior with the top parts of the petals cut away for easier viewing of the reproductive structures.

Gesneriad flowers frequently are quite fuzzy and hairy. More photos of that to come!

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