CrimePaysButBotanyDoesnt
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The Plant That Self-Sows Its Own Seed
🕑 Added 2024-12-27 16:48:10 +0000 UTCIt was nice to visit the one of the only populations of Eucnide lobata in the United States yesterday. This plant is in the Velcro Leaf Family, Loasaceae. This is a rock wall obligate plant which you'll almost never encounter growing in actual soil. It's primarily restricted to vertical rock walls.
I hadn't noticed that the pedicels of the fruits reflex back towards the wall after the flowers finish blooming. This is, presumably, so that the seeds dehisce over the wall rather than just spilling out onto the ground below where they would have little chance of surviving. A few other rock wall plants such as species of Perityle do this, and it's a pretty amazing phenomenon to have been selected for.
The benefits of growing in rock walls of course is the near-complete lack of competition mixed with the fact that water is channeled directly into the cracks and crevices your roots are ensconced in. This happens even during light morning fog as it condenses on the rock surface.
Also visited a friend's ranch to check on some peyote populations.
Comments
Kerry Knudsen
Cool adaption
Elliot
I like this short form content! A few great photos and some new knowledge
April Hughes
It's amazing how plants have adapted so well the the environment they are in. There are some cool native plants growing out of man made rock walls in Chicago. They aren't as a species evolved to grow in man made rock walls, but they are managing and it heartens me.
Anthony J Malone
This isn't a human-made environment. It's composed of conglomerate, a natural rock wall, like the rock wall beneath a cliff
Miranda Miller
Rock face
Miranda Miller
Very cool
Tom Waksman
That sounds like complex behaviour that would not have enough time to evolve as human walls have not existed long enough, right? What is the natural equivalent of the wall?
