Sunday, August 28, 2011

Wild fruit and pollination

On Vancouver Island (British Columbia, Canada) there are all kinds of wild and native fruit that are edible.

When I see fruit on native trees and shrubs, I straight away think that when these plants were in bloom, there were lots of bees in the area.  It is always fun for me to have a closer look.

These photos were taken under a Douglas fir/Pine canopy.  Filtered sunlight and sunlight available along trails and roads allows these plants to grow profusely.

Salal berries. Ready to eat!

Some of these Salal berries are shriveling up from the drying sun.

Red Huckelberries- few, but great tangy morsels for eating

Thimble berry.  A real treat!

A profuse number of Salal berries.  Ready for eating.


Thimble berry flowers are about as big as a bumble bee.  If a smaller bee visits
a Thimbleberry flower and if this smaller bee does not move around the flower, only part of the flower will be pollinated- as in this flower.  95 percent of the flower in this photo is pollinated, but a small strip was not pollinated (seen as a band of unpollinated ovaries). 


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