Tyler SmithHappy New Year friends! I'm back to work tomorrow, so today I'm remembering some of 2022's highlights. Top of the list are two #botany trips to #Labrador to study #bakeapples
Here's a pair of #bakeapple flowers. Bakeapples have male and female plants, which makes them challenging to study, and difficult to cultivate.
#bakeapple flower in June. I returned in August to collect fruit. When they're ripe, the sepals fold back revealing a delicious orange berry. This one is not quite ready - when it is the sepals will point down, not up, and the berry will have a deeper colour.
To give you an idea of the harsh environment, this image shows two stems, each with a single fruit. The one on the left is sunburned, which gives the berry a pale, scorched appearance.
The berry on the right looks mummified, a victim of freezing temperatures. The temperature can drop below freezing any time of year here, but too much sun is also a problem for these plants.
You can see the red pigments in the leaves in these images, an adaptation to excessive sun exposure common in heathland plants.