A close-up photo of a walnut with half of the shell removed to reveal the familiar edible nut, which is cotyledon tissue.
Walnuts come close to having labyrinth seeds. The cotyledons (the edible part) are folded distinctively, but not to the degree of labyrinth seeds. 📷: Ritesh Man Tamrakar CCBYSA2 #cotyledon #Juglandaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱
Close-up photo of a bare twig with two dormant buds in the leaf (scar) axil. The upper bud is larger than the lower. An ant attends. Photo by T.H. Chow & used with permission.
Shifting topics midweek. I have a few photos to share of an interesting phenomenon: multiplication of the axillary buds. This is a relatively uncommon morphological feature. In pecan (Carya illinoinensis), the buds are superposed, i.e., one stacked over the other. #Juglandaceae #buds #Botany 🌾🧪🌱
Analysis of the pollen from a peat bog on our site shows Walnut (Juglans regia) growing close-by from as early as the 7th century CE.
#Juglandaceae #environment #earlymedieval #archaeology
Bracts that are small when they subtend the flower can become enlarged (accrescent) in fruit. The fleshy, dark-staining tissue that surrounds black walnuts is comprised of accrescent bracts. This is Juglans nigra. #Juglandaceae #bracts #Botany 🌾🧪🌱
Photo of a fleshy fruit of a black walnut and two cleaned nuts beside it. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.
When accessory structures (i.e., not the ovary) get involved, all kinds of fruit oddities appear. The fruit of Juglans is a pseudodrupe. The accessory part is formed from accrescent bracts below the flower. The bracts become fleshy & surround a nut. #fruit #Juglandaceae #Botany #PlantScience 🌾🧪🌱
Photo of a hand holding a leafy shoot bearing a single nut at its apex. The pinnately compound leaves are yellowish on the undersides.
The Florida #Scrub has an endemic hickory, Carya floridana, a small tree with full-sized nuts. Is their small stature an adaptation to growing on dry, deep, silica sand? Likewise, do large fruits mean large seeds ➡️ better seedling establishment? #Florida #Juglandaceae : Jay Horn CCBY4 #Botany 🌾🧪
Photo of clusters of purple flowers emerging like pom-poms on the soil surface.
Photo of a cluster of purple flowers emerging like a pom-pom on the soil surface.
My friends & colleagues John & Soejatmi Dransfield successfully inoculated a walnut (Juglans sp.; #Juglandaceae) in their back garden with bits of Lathraea clandestina (#Orobanchaceae). THIS was the payoff. What an amazing #parasiticplant! #Botany #PlantScience 🌾🧪
Congratulations to @geneticatt on an incredible MS thesis defense on #Juglandaceae #genomes! Virtual defense and celebration! As Alex would say “we’re all nuts about walnuts” @CaWalnuts @uconneeb #Juglans @TreeGenes @UConnCLAS
