This photo was taken during my March trip to Lake Tahoe. Can you identify the plant (family, genus, species), the structure shown, and its function? Answer and more photos tomorrow.
© Ted C. MacRae 2010
…an inordinate fondness for beetles!
It seems therefore that a taste for collecting beetles is some indication of future success in life!--Charles Darwin
I feel like an old war-horse at the sound of a trumpet when I read about the capture of rare beetles.--Charles Darwin
The Creator, if He exists, must have an inordinate fondness for beetles.--J. B. S. Haldane
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Ted C. MacRae is an agricultural research entomologist with "an inordinate fondness for beetles." Primary expertise includes taxonomy and host associations of wood-boring beetles, with more recent interest also in tiger beetle survey and conservation. I am currently serving as Managing Editor of the The Pan-Pacific Entomologist, Layout Editor for the journal Cicindela and Newsletter Editor for the Webster Groves Nature Study Society. Visit me also at these other sites:
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Commentaria Novae
ultimatist (@ultimat… on Trees of Lake Tahoe – Th… Robert Wrigley on The real Eleodes suturalis… melicrawford on What’s black and white a… kcarl on North America’s largest… chrispoehlmann on Mite on White 8 Things That Are Th… on Myths about why Lake Tahoe doe… Karrie on What’s black and white a… ethan on The Third of Florida’s T… Gregory Clarke on One-shot Wednesday: Mallodon… Ted C. MacRae on Phocus on Phyllobrotica… -
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Curl-leaf Mountain Mahogany
ROSACEAE, Cercocarpus ledifolius
It’s a seed, shaped for wind dispersal.
peteryeeles beat me. But you shot that in March? That’s how ours (Utah) look in July/August…
It was just one of a few hangers-on. The plants are amazing in late summer when they are completely draped in the silvery sheen!
Not a seed, but a fruit, with a persistent stigma to aid in dispersal — not uncommon, but with many variants on the theme, in Rosaceae.
Quite right of course, James. I knew there would be consequences for dozing off in the botany lectures all those years ago.
I still have nightmares about all the (what seemed like thousands of) terms used to describe something as simple as a leaf margin…
I’ve got near 20 years as a practicing botanist and am still learning them. It’s a rich language.
Yes, this is Cercocarpus ledifolius (curl-leaf mountain mahogany) in the family Rosaceae – one of the few tree species missing from my Trees of Lake Tahoe series of last year. Nice job from an Aussie to swoop in and scarf up the points for the plant ID and function of the structure, while James salvaged the remaining points for the name of the structure itself.
More pics and info will be posted shortly.