Its just getting cool enough now, in mid-November, to start hiking again. So I decided to check out a hike we did in May, and see how the views and wildflowers had changed. The yuccas all had cool seed pods, and the California buckwheat flowers have turned a rust-brown color that makes the hills look kind of autumny. There were also a ton of birds out and about, checking out berries on shrubs. Apparently the yucca species in the Santa Monica Mountains is Yucca whipplei, which is pollinated by the female moth Tegeticula maculata. W.P. Armstrong of Palomar College describes this amazing relationship in intimate detail here, but basically the female moth lays her eggs into the ovary of the yucca flower, before depositing many bundles of pollen onto the flower's stigma, thereby pollinating the flower and providing food for her larvae, which will grow over the next several months inside the ovary and consume a portion of the developing seeds. Its fascinating when plant-pollinator relationships have an underlying layer of uneasy complexity (i.e. pollinator is also a seed predator) between the mutualistic partners! Below are some other images from the hike.
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AuthorI like nature! And hiking, and taking pictures, especially of nature. Archives
September 2014
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