Flowers & Fruit 06-06-11

In looking at birds at the Arboretum on Saturday we also were able to look at the plants and trees.  Things have grown a lot in the years (maybe a decade) since I last visited and I seem to have forgotten the names of plants I once knew.   Here is one new to me and an old friend.

 
The guide pointed out this Monkey Hand Tree which has flowers that attract the hooded orioles resident to the area.  It is a medium to large tree (up to 40 feet) which originates in Guatemala and S.Mexico

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiranthodendron

The "cup" of the large flower holds nectar for the birds and the monkey's hand reaches upward.

You can see the size of the flower in the hand of one of the birders. 

These are the flowers of the pomegranate tree.

 
And here is a very young pomegranate - it will grow to maybe six times this size and turn red as it matures.

When I was a child my sister and I lived for several years during WWII with our paternal grandparents in Los Angeles.  I suppose I was too young to know that pomegranate trees didn't grow in my neighborhood in Oregon, but we did think they were wonderfully exotic.  They were common in the backyards in LA and hung over the fences into the alley behind our grandparents' house.  We were little thieves and would reach with sticks under the fences to fish out those lovely red orbs that had fallen on the ground.  I doubt that anyone minded and it was so wonderfully "evil"!  We just cracked them open and ate the seeds out of hand.  But I always wished there was more juice and less seed!