After weeks of studying these zucchinis and scratching my head, the light has dawned upon me, and I get it. I understand the zucchini. I knew they were part of the pumpkin family, but I thought they would grow on a vine... nope, they just spread out a bit and have a kind of slim trunk I guess you would call it. Growing out from the trunk are branches that end in leaves, and the flowers grow out from the trunk too.
So... in the photo above, is the girl flower. And the photo below is the boy. See how the boy has all that pollen? The female flower has all those little teeny hairs to catch that pollen.
At the base of the female flower is where the little zucchini grows.
The male flowers have no zucchini at their base.
And the flowers open and close, open and close...
And I am pretty sure it's the same for squash... this is boy squash...
... and girl squash.
Now I didn't do anything to help along with the pollination of the zucchinis, so I am guessing that nature is doing its thing and bees or ants or other insects are crawling all over the flowers and doing all the hard work.
At the base of the female flower is where the little zucchini grows.
The male flowers have no zucchini at their base.
And the flowers open and close, open and close...
And I am pretty sure it's the same for squash... this is boy squash...
... and girl squash.
Now I didn't do anything to help along with the pollination of the zucchinis, so I am guessing that nature is doing its thing and bees or ants or other insects are crawling all over the flowers and doing all the hard work. Which is good, because I don't know how to do it anyway.
9 comments:
I'm sure I once saw you pollinate a pumpkin vine! How did that turn out anyway? Any baby pumpkins?
Did you find your gardening gloves? Enjoyed your explanation on male and female zuccini. Will check out your planting personally tomorrow. Cheryl
Lucy, you are right, I did try to pollinate a pumpkin, and not only did it not work, it felt wrong!!! lol, poor female flower, I felt like I'd violated the poor thing!
No gloves mum... where are they? What are they doing??? I want my gloves!!! They are such a lovely pair too, not only are they a beautiful bright red, the palm part are made from goat skin (sorry goats)... They have to be around here somewhere though...
So does that mean that the male flowers are the ones they stuff with good things to eat and deep fry? if so that is good use for a flower that serves no vegetable purpose... If not????
I had to look that one up Jac, it hadn't occurred to me that you only ate either male or female flowers! But according to trusty googling, you can stuff and eat both! This recipe here looks really good: http://www.zurika.com/2009/07/ask-the-expat-how-to-eat-zucchini-flowers.html
Sorry, I went a bit exclamation wild there.
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