Gunnera is just so goddamned Weird...
Added 2024-05-31 13:28:09 +0000 UTCFor those of you unfamiliar with this long lonely branch on the Angiosperm family tree, take a look at these photos. AFterwards, go find Gunnera on the angiosperm phylogeny poster at www.plantgateway.com/poster
This is a genus I fell in love with years ago after being exposed to Gunnera tinctoria at UC Berkeley, which hosts colonies of nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria in its stems and can produce leaves up to 6 feet in diameter. The genus also produces species that are no bigger than a quarter, such as Gunnera monoica from New Zealand. Flowers in the genus can be unisexual or bisexual (check out the photos showing bisexual flowers, with an ovary topped by two styles and two stames with red anthers that have not dehisced and shed pollen yet), consisting of an ovary with two style branches and an androecium (male flower part) with two stamens. Thousands of tiny flowers will be produced on one flower spike. There are two species in the photos above, Gunnera insignis and Gunnera tinctoria. Gunnera is the only genus in the family Gunneraceae. There is only one other genus, Myrothamnus (the famed "resurrection plant" from Southern Africa and Madagascar) in the order Gunnerales.
Comments
It'll click eventually keep at it
Anthony J Malone
2024-06-04 05:59:30 +0000 UTCGoing to put this poster on my tablet and check it out. I have another one that shows the evolution of angiosperms. It’s pretty cool. It’s still a foreign language to me.
Zeebes
2024-06-02 19:39:20 +0000 UTCI feel your pain. Grow more. GEt some woody stuff. Place football-sized rocks in your yard so her lawnmower gets dinged up if she tries again
Anthony J Malone
2024-06-01 19:25:05 +0000 UTCWow, diverged before Asterid and Rosid groupings. Yet I feel like without closer relatives, the taxonomy does nothing!
Bryan
2024-06-01 16:15:04 +0000 UTCEh, you're right; it wasn't that big of a deal. Just drank a bit too much coffee and was bored - going to cut back on that. Sorry for the off-topic rant. Keep up the good work!
Duck In Ur Shirt
2024-06-01 01:10:06 +0000 UTC🫨😵🤯...thanks for telling
Ana Rita
2024-05-31 14:03:08 +0000 UTCIt might just be for me, but in case anyone else has problems with the link - looks like “.com” works, while “.org” doesn’t
evaley chants
2024-05-31 13:32:26 +0000 UTCJust beautiful! Thanks
morris ridgeway
2024-05-31 13:31:12 +0000 UTC
