August 20, 2020 Meeting

Botany and Horticulture:  Cardinal flower, Lobelia cardinalis




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​Member Caryl Talcott submitted a photo of Cardinal flower growing in her garden.  There were many comments of the beauty of the plant and of observations by several of hummingbirds swarming around the flowers in gardens.

For the Botany and Horticulture section of the following meeting, we discussed a little about the structure of the flower and its parts.
Cardinal flower photo:  by Caryl Talcott, NC Unit Herb Society of America, Inc. member.

Photo of dissected flower:  “Know Your Natives:  Cardinal Flower” by Sid Vogelpohl, Arkansas Native Plant Society member. ANPS (Oct.5,2015) 
​https://anps.org/2015/10/05/know-your-natives-cardinal-flower/



​Left:  The flower corolla (petals) consists of two slender upper lobes (flared, connected at the tube but not beyond) and three lower broader lobes (connected at the bases).  The flower tube has a fluted appearance.

2nd from Left:  Rising from the center of the tube is the pistil (ovary, style, and stigma).  The sticky two-lobed stigma at the top receives pollen (from visiting insects, hummingbirds, butterflies), which travels down the style to the ovary, which is where seeds develop.

3rd from Left:  The pistil is surrounded by 5 filaments which are fused and topped by fused anthers (slightly greyish-blue).  The filaments support the anthers.  The anthers produce pollen the pollen that is released onto the backs of visiting pollinators, to be deposited on the next flower visited.  The filaments and anthers are referred to as stamen.
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Right:  The flower with the tube split open.
 
 
 

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