A Favourite Flower

Day 108: As far as favourite flowers go (excluding rare species), it ranks right up there with Wild Ginger (Asarum caudatum) and Skunk Cabbage (Lysichiton americanum) as far as I'm concerned. These teeny-tiny tufts go unnoticed if you don't know exactly what to look for, and when. I've been watching them develop on the Contorted Filbert over the last few days, hoping that it wouldn't be pouring down rain when they burst open. The pendulous catkins you see in the background are the males, the pollen producers on this monoecious shrub. In an experiment last year to see if my tree would produce hazelnuts, I caged several clusters of burgeoning nuts to protect them from squirrels and birds. Predictably, those not caged were devoured. There was nothing I could do about worms (a common pest which eats the nut from the inside out, having accessed the center of the ovary during the blossoming phase), but it appeared that the ones I had caged were developing. However, when I cracked them open months later, there were no nuts inside, nor was there any tell-tale worm frass. From this, I conclude that despite forming shells, the tree is not self-fertile at the very least, and perhaps sterile altogether.