Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh Image source: pixabay
When people appreciate plants, flowers tend to attract all the attention. The bloom of the flowers is dazzling, but after the petals wither, the fruits and seeds can also show their unique elegance.
Photographer Levon Biss's new book shows some striking but unusual plant organs that don't appear until most people look away. The book is titled The Hidden Beauty of Seeds & Fruits: The Botanical Photography of Levon Biss, and samples are from the collection of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. These collections can help botanists understand the function of different fruits. Because each delicate, dry, and somewhat hairy sample shows a series of ways in which life can continue.
This is the round fruit of the genus Fluff, a plant distributed in the Mediterranean region and the Arabian Peninsula. The genus has a famous feature – its ability to absorb heavy metals, so scientists have tried to use this plant to absorb pollutants from the soil.
Castor seeds, which contain ricin, are extremely toxic. At one end of each ricine seed is a yellow knot filled with nutrient-rich fat. Ants will drag the fruit into their nests, pluck the delicious parts, and then throw the rest into their garbage dumps. New plants will start to grow from here.
Castor seeds. Image credit: pixabay
This dangerous-looking fruit comes from a rhomboid horn that humans have been feeding on since the Neolithic age. The green leaf-like petals that protect the base of the flower harden and turn into spikes as shown in the picture.
The white fruit of the eriosyce aurata of the cactaceae family keeps the seeds inside moist and protects them from extreme heat. The fruit itself also has a protective structure. The thorny sheath at the top of the fruit heralds that when the cactus is fully ripe, a needle will grow on top of the fruit.
Image credit: pixabay
Written by: Leslie Nemo
Translation: Lu Zhiyuan
This article is from: China Digital Science and Technology Museum