<--Previous  Up  Next-->



Sexing flowers

Cardons can come in three sexes: males, females, and hermaphrodites. In order to sex a cardon, you have to pick a flower and cross-section it. If it's a male, there will be pollen all over the yellow fuzzy anthers at the top of the flower; if it's a female, there are "pearly" eggs in the ovary at the very bottom of the flower; if it's a hermaphrodite, there are both! The one in this photo is a female, with nice, runty, pollen-free anthers. So why would little animals want to come pollinate a flower? Well, right above the ovary is the nectary (goopy dark yellow oval), which contains a sweet treat for bats/birds/insects/me to lick out. The downside is that you get pollen all over your face which you carry around to all the rest of the flowers that you visit, but the nectar is quite yummy.