Flowers and Fruits

Photos by Matt Ball  10/23/2012

You may find Twin Seed aka Arizona Fold Wing (Dicliptera resupinata) with some flowers, as I did here. Note that the flowers are actually tubular; the seed develops deep inside, and the twin sepals (sepals basically hold the flower to the stem) close around the seed, forming the fruit.

The black dot is the seed from this fruit.

If you're out in the canyon with kids (of all ages), it's good to give them a task involving plants, as plants always have something to show. One fun task in fall and winter is to find fruits. [Remember: a fruit is the thing that holds the seed(s).] You don't need to know the name of the plant to identify a fruit; that's not the point. The task is simply to have your kid(s) say: 'That's a fruit.' If you are with older kids, you can then ask things like: How do you think the seed gets around and in the ground?

Furthermore, photos from kids (of all ages) can be published on this blog (with a world-wide audience)! Take photos of fruits, (no need to touch anything) and send them to me via email (less than 1MB please). I'll happily help with i.d., but again, the point of this task is to marvel at fruits in all their wonderful desert varieties, not to get bogged down in Latin.