production and reproduction

the season is getting along and i found the first local wild berry bloom yesterday...which i thought was a bit early but looking back is right on time...still..they have catching up to do...

there are multiple blooms and blooms to be on the new york imports on the north end by the russian olive...

and the east bed is home to multiple blooms as well so there will be berries in all three import patches which is encouraging...

once again, however, it is the south bed that is leading the way...this particular plant...

has generated five of the six stolons in this photo as the south bed berries take aim at the jerusalem artichokes' territory once again...

they are not stinting on the blooms down south either...there will be berries for the birds to spread seed and daughters on the march to colonize the beds...there will be stolon madness in the other beds as the weather warms...right now the south bed is the warmest and sunniest...give them time...they know what to do.

second season

the new york imports on the south side of the house continue to bloom away...

the continue to work on some berries to be as well...

in the east bed the plants continue to bloom too...

they have divided their energy though...berries and stolons...producing fuit and daughters...i won't complain...wagering Jean won't either...

the newest is that the other variety of wild berry out there had an irruption of blooms yesterday in the sun and the warmth...this one was looking for pollinators yesterday...

has furled its petals on a day that is more than twenty degrees cooler...

this one which was soaking up the sun yesterday afternoon...

seems destined for berryhood today...the season is moving along...the berries are not wasting any time...Jean will have a yardful soon.

from the beginning

the wild berry Duchesnea indica has been in my yard for a number of years...when and exactly how it arrived i haven't a clue ( birds? ) it produces exquisitely complex yellow flowers that begin appearing in mid-april...when the flower is pollinated it loses its petals and begins to form a berry from what was the center of the flower...i have been sending photos of the blooms to a close friend ( whose favorite color is....yellow ) and, as the berries develop, have been taking daily photos...she suggested that it would be fun to blog the metamorphosis from bloom to berry and so we find ourselves here...i will attempt to photograph the same berry every day and will also choose a new blossom to track to get the full impact ( there are no guarantees the current candidate will remain intact )...the photos here are from the eighteenth of april to today and i foresee this as a blog for this season...since the plants ( which have colonized areas of my yard by creating daughter plants with stolons just like domesticated strawberries ) were blooming into october last year it should be a good and instructive insight into some plant morphology over the course of a few months...stay tuned...they will be turning red soon enough.