May-2013
Plants of New Hampshire: Cleistogamous Flowers of Fringed Polygala
I haven’t been able to find any photographs of cleistogamous flowers for Polygala paucifolia Willd. on the internet, so I decided to try to find and photograph some for this Plants of New Hampshire blog. I found some plants today and took some pictures – you will find a couple here. Remember that cleistogamous flowers are inconspicuous and self fertile. They occur underground and never really open at all. This plant is so cool! If something happens to affect the pollinators of the above ground, chasmogamous flowers (the unpredictable and sometimes cold spring weather in New Hampshire), the plants will still produce fruits and seeds from the self-fertile cleistogamous flowers. For more pictures of the chasmogamous flowers of this plant see my blog post from May 7th. By the way, no plants were put to death to capture these pictures; I replanted and watered this little guy.
Chasmogamous and cleistogamous flowers of Polygala paucifolia, Fringed Polygala.
Cleistogamous flowers of Polygala paucifolia, Fringed Polygala.
Cleistogamous flowers of Polygala paucifolia, Fringed Polygala.
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