Morning haze Proteaceae
Proteas usually flower during spring time. The general structure of the Protea flower head consists of a mass of flowers on a woody receptacle. The ovary is protected by the receptacle and thus not seen when looking at the flower, the anthers are however present at the top of the flower which can then easily transfer the pollen to the vectors.
The common Protea plants, e.g. Protea, Leucospermum and Leucadendron are diploid organisms and thus they can freely hybridise with closely related species of Protea flowers to form a new cultivars. Unusually, not all the genera within the family Proteaceae are able to hybridise freely, for example the Leucadendron mentioned previously, cannot be crossed with the Leucospermum because of the difference they display in a haploid chromosome number. The genetic incompatibility between Leucadendron genera Protea having a haploid chromosome number of 13, and Leucospermum genera Protea, having 12, makes them genetically incompatible for hybridizing, resulting in the pollinated flowers yielding either no fruit, or seedless fruit as the resulting plant embryos, from the incompatible pollen and ovum, fails to develop.
PS: I am now travelling for the next few days and will be in a different time zone for the next 4 weeks in Arizona (GMT - 7) so I will catch up with my flickr friends while they are probably all fast asleep!
Morning haze Proteaceae
Proteas usually flower during spring time. The general structure of the Protea flower head consists of a mass of flowers on a woody receptacle. The ovary is protected by the receptacle and thus not seen when looking at the flower, the anthers are however present at the top of the flower which can then easily transfer the pollen to the vectors.
The common Protea plants, e.g. Protea, Leucospermum and Leucadendron are diploid organisms and thus they can freely hybridise with closely related species of Protea flowers to form a new cultivars. Unusually, not all the genera within the family Proteaceae are able to hybridise freely, for example the Leucadendron mentioned previously, cannot be crossed with the Leucospermum because of the difference they display in a haploid chromosome number. The genetic incompatibility between Leucadendron genera Protea having a haploid chromosome number of 13, and Leucospermum genera Protea, having 12, makes them genetically incompatible for hybridizing, resulting in the pollinated flowers yielding either no fruit, or seedless fruit as the resulting plant embryos, from the incompatible pollen and ovum, fails to develop.
PS: I am now travelling for the next few days and will be in a different time zone for the next 4 weeks in Arizona (GMT - 7) so I will catch up with my flickr friends while they are probably all fast asleep!