INVISIBLE FLOWERS
If you walk up the hill to enjoy a meal at the Iron Door Restaurant in the Catalina Mountains, you may not notice plants scattered among the clumps of grass. And even if you did, you might not realize that the plants were in full and glorious bloom. The plant is in the rose family, and has very unusual flowers.

The flower head consists of  a number of little capsules, each packed with anthers, with long filaments ending in a yellow stamen. The stamens are the male parts of the flower and are loaded with pollen. When the time is right the capsules burst open and the male flowers hang down on their thin threads. The beautiful red female flowers are mostly on top. When they open up they look like something growing in a coral reef.

 

 

 

Here we see the flower head with the female flowers at the top. These heads are less than an inch in diameter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this picture we see the anthers popping out of the little capsules.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
And here is a close-up of the female flowers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The plant is called Small Burnet. Its leaves are used in salads, so it is also called “Salad burnet”. The botanical name tells of the medicinal use of the plant – sanguisorba (meaning blood absorbing). The species name is minor. There is another larger sanguisorba, (Sanguisorba major) but I have not met that one. Small Burnet is a delightful plant, easily passed by because of the nearly invisible flowers.