You never know where curiosity will lead. After reading Claire’s blog post, 09/08/2022 nighttime only adventure and her iNat post, I went looking for caterpillars this morning. Indeed, she had triggered my curiosity for what I could find on Salvia greggii here at our house. I did not find a caterpillar, but I found something different. 🙂 Additionally, I should mention that Kathy found a similar cat to Claire’s, but hers was on Ruellia metzae. Thus as Sherlock Holmes said, the game was afoot.
Salvia greggii! Indeed such a beautiful flower and a favorite plant for hummers, bees, butterflies, moths, caterpillars, and other insects. However, I did not find any on them this cool morning. So perhaps it was too cool yet.
Most of the flowers were not showing their anthers like this one.
However, one or two did! Now my curiosity was piqued. Immediately I thought it was time to bring one in for a closer examination. 🙂
First a look at the leaf. It was pretty plain.
Next closer yet. Looking under the compound scope, I could see three veins inside the leaf section. This section was nearer the middle of a leaf. (40X)
Closer to the base of the leaf, in this view you should be able to see the veins better. The darker center one and then two smaller ones to either side. Certainly looks like a face, eh. (100X)
Another 100X view.
400X of the center of the vein!
The green stem near the base of the flower was covered with these stalked glands! (10X)
The tongue-like stigma extended out. You also can see a bit of yellow pollen near its base.
The anther on the right still had lots of pollen! (30X)
Anthers on the left. And the stigma and style on the right. (10X)
Splitting it open I could see the ovary! (30X)
There was a strange little appendage off of the filament. Then there was that aha moment! Has it hit you yet? It was the trigger!
Back outside! To imitate the beak of a hummer or the proboscis of a lepidoptera, we used a small twig as a substitute! Indeed thank you Jim for being my stick bug!
Next, a side view of the trigger in action! So cool!
To sum it up, there was more than one type of trigger! Moreover, you never know what you might discover!
Super cool videos – great investigation!
That trigger on salvia is the coolest video ever. Who would have thought. That was a real treat.
How cool!!!
Thank you Jim. That was very neat Mary. I even showed it to Gary.
Wow, amazing! Thanks, Mary!