Sweet Infertility. Rhopalostylis sapida, Feather Duster Palm, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Daniel Carlsson Solander (1733-1782), a student of great Carolus Linnaeus, accompanied James Cook on the Endeavour's first voyage around the world (1768-1771). In the South Seas he saw this Rhopalostylis sapida, which Johann Georg Adam Forster (1754-1794) - who went on Cook's second voyage - called an Areca (1786). It's now in blossom in the Hortus Botanicus here in Amsterdam.
I examined it closely and found the male flowers sticky with nectar. It's exuded by the pistillodes - the infertile pistils that the male flowers bear. My fingers were deliciously sticky from having brushed those flowers as Olymp was doing his thing.
Curiously none of the scientific descriptions that I read mention that stickiness. In the inset you can see a few of those pistillodes with drops of nectar.
Sweet Infertility. Rhopalostylis sapida, Feather Duster Palm, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Daniel Carlsson Solander (1733-1782), a student of great Carolus Linnaeus, accompanied James Cook on the Endeavour's first voyage around the world (1768-1771). In the South Seas he saw this Rhopalostylis sapida, which Johann Georg Adam Forster (1754-1794) - who went on Cook's second voyage - called an Areca (1786). It's now in blossom in the Hortus Botanicus here in Amsterdam.
I examined it closely and found the male flowers sticky with nectar. It's exuded by the pistillodes - the infertile pistils that the male flowers bear. My fingers were deliciously sticky from having brushed those flowers as Olymp was doing his thing.
Curiously none of the scientific descriptions that I read mention that stickiness. In the inset you can see a few of those pistillodes with drops of nectar.