Aren't you all looking forward to spring, when all the plants strive to inseminate your nose?
(via National Geographic)
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And a baobab tree!
Oh, no, pretty soon I'm going to be gushing over pictures of cute little kittens, aren't I?
(via National Geographic)
Note: It hasn't happened yet here, although we heard them down the hill in the valley yesterday. But we seem to be having an early spring, even though we've still got more than a foot of snow to melt off. I wrote this last year, and though the precise circumstances are different, the need for…
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Yes!
Microscopic penises and vaginas...sexy.
You are ruining this, Levi. No need to animorphize.
I say it's only fair, given what we humans do...
Ahh, spring, only 8 months away. Still the weather's tropical here right now. Above 20c at night and low 30's during the day with thunderstorms or humidity. Bring on the future, at 6cm north a year, Melbourne will be fully tropical in the not too distant geological future...
it makes a nice change from pet dander.
*CA-SHOOO!*
LO! Is that a Most Noodley Appendage I see?
I am unworthy!
I read an interesting article in one of the more obscure scientific magazines, Parade. "A mysterious condition is causing fish in rivers across the U.S. to exhibit both male and female sex characteristics." WTF. The article can probably be read at Parade.com/intel. Somewhat off topic, but interesting.
Thanks for that image, PZ. I'm never going to be able to get the idea of a floral nasal gang-bang out of my head.
Godless bestiality. I'll stick with intra-species nose sex, thank you very much.
Achoo!....Achoo!! Excuse me. Achoo!
Oh, I love spring. Achoo!
Some of those look like the mushrooms I put on the angel hair pasta with shrimp and broccoli I made the other night.
It seems clear that National Geographic must be banned from schools! This is just as bad as the dictionaries!
I am certain that seeing a pollen grain getting a stiffy will lead to inevitable moral decay and a life of wanton debauchery!
I would like to once again express my appreciation for botanical Wednesdays. Very nice.
Unfortunately, this reminds me that with the arrival of spring come pollen counts, which I don't much like performing. It's interesting the first day, then it's downhill from there.
That's probably a ragweed pollen grain on the left (the prickly one), and the yellow ones look like maple. Not sure what the greenish ones are. Maybe some sort of ornamental or grass, although grass pollen is usually quite large.
In spring, every day is another money shot.
Yellow might be willow, too.
Ever notice how PZ can take a lovely theme like botanicals and turn it into something creepy and disgusting?
... and my sinuses fucking HATE it.
mikecbraum - Thank You. Being entirely unschooled in the scientific - I was ignorant and was considering a comment to ask the dumb question...
I shall assume the white stuff they are laying on is Llewelly's snot.
From the NG site:
We get it year-round down here. Texas cedar. Sigh. *reaches for the nasal spray*
The plants are one thing, but the there are the trees.
"TREES ARE FUCKING IN MY EYES! GET OUT OF MY EYES HORNY TREES"
Eidolon, not to be pedantic, but pollen grains don't get "stiffies." They get woodies.
@Sara:
No problem--although many types of pollen look similar, so take my guesses with a grain of salt. There are probably hundreds that are spiky like ragweed, and willow and maple pollen look very similar.
Usually in spring or summer I loved the fact that it looked like snowing, when the large trees get there thing going. That was until I realized that the trees were literally giving me a facial.
So Day, are you saying that when one eats honey, they are, in effect, being snowballed by a bee?
Nah, my analogy doesn't work, since honey is made from nectar. Doh! I thought I had won the internets for a second there...
Does anyone know what the scale is here?
One of my pet peeves is the antihistamine commercial that shows a person being inundated with flowers like some kind of horror show of pollen overdose. Totally wrong -- Fail. The plants that cause hay fever are all wind pollinated, that is they throw up huge quantities of pollen, hoping that a few of the grains randomly hit the right spot on the female flower parts. Ragweed("Ambrosia" sp. - Carl Linnaeus must a been high when he named that group)), Cedar, many trees, grasses, etc are wind pollinated. Flowers(in the ornamental sense) exist to attract pollinators; the insects or birds and animals(even humans) that carry pollen from flower to flower. This type of pollen is sticky and heavy, not likely to get up into the air. The upshot of this is it creates a huge discrimination in many peoples mind towards flowers, and the hobby of gardening, which could cause the hobby to die out.... oh wait, gardening is the most popular hobby there is; never mind.
Rule 34
@Chuck
Well, buddy, I don't know about you (and I must admit ignorance of the mechanism) but so much as put me in a room with some carnations and I'll have trouble breathing and a wicked headache. And I'm not the only one.
Plant secks in my nose! Mmmm, gets the juices flowing, yes it does!
Love these pics. They are gorgeous.
I find it quite interesting (but not surprising) that many of the pollen grains look a lot like the plants themselves. For example, the Venus Fly Trap and the Crinum. I'm sure I could find more if I had time to look more closely.
As a horticulturalist, I have to agree with chuck @31.
Shatfat @33, you might need to do some controlled studies to see if carnation pollen really bothers you.
First of all, most florist carnations have extra flower petals developed from the stamens of the original species. I'm not sure how much pollen they can even produce, but the chances of much getting out through those stacked petals is really slim.
In many cultivated flowers, even bees can't get at the nectaries and the pollen for all the extra petals.
Shatfat,
Its highly unlikely that carnation pollen is causing your problems, for the reasons Lynn mentioned above, plus others. Being a fragrant flower, a carnation is releasing a bunch(a highly precise scientific measurement term) of volatile chemicals into the air. Chemicals that you are not routinely exposed to, unless you work in a florist shop or carnation nursery. It is probably one of these chemicals that you are sensitive to. Or it's psychosomatic.
Can we use the term "massive facial" do discribe this phenomenon?
Hello destlund
then this one is for you
http://www.queenofwands.net/d/20050730.html
No, where did he do that?
skeptical scientist - Some other Viburnum species have pollen in the 25-35 micrometer range, so something like that.