Close look at Herb Robert
Throughout the day on Friday 15th November 2024 the car did not display an outside temperature lower than 10.5°C. No wonder the gorse is flowering all over Assynt and this single flower of Herb Robert, Geranium robertianum was standing out like a beacon near the Loch Poll track.
With the temperature set to drop to very low single figures early the following week we just had to capture this beautiful tiny flower in all its glory while it was there. It typically flowers from early spring to early autumn so is in for a shock!
Every time you take a closer look at things in the natural world their amazing patterns and intricate design never cease to amaze and delight. Of course, this little flower doesn’t look like it does to please humans. It’s all about reproduction and usually to attract insect pollinators. Except that in the case of Herb Robert seed production appears to be by self-pollination.
Whatever mechanism it uses to produce its seeds you could never argue that it isn’t beautiful.
All those little bits
Briefly what you are looking at here is a single flower that is maybe 1cm across. It has five petals and ten stamens (comprising filament and anther; the male parts of the equation), six of the anthers have already split open to release their bright orange pollen. The thin, dark pink fingers at the centre of things are the stigmas (the female part of the equation) and they receive the pollen.
The flowers of Herb Robert go through a fairly complex opening routine.
At first the stigmas are close together. The five anthers located nearest the centre of the flower split open and release their pollen; the other five stamens bend towards the petals. The stigmas then separate to expose their receptive surfaces. Then the inner stamens wither and the outer ones move towards the stigmas to open and release their pollen.
So, a close look at Herb Robert reveals that there is a lot more to it than at first attracts the eye. According to this item on our website it seems to have been attracting my eye since at least 2017!
David Haines