Tuesday, September 3, 2019

More Sex in the Garden


Every summer, I have a lot of fun observing the interesting reproductive variations of the plants emerging in the garden. Sexual reproduction was an early evolutionary innovation and, when we think about it, is commonplace. The birds do it, the bees do it and plants do it throughout the growing season. 

The latest sexual wonder in my garden this summer has been a Franz bunching onion.Its companions normally grow in bunches of 20 or more tops. It’s what I general expect. However, this single Franz erection that popped up in the onion patch this year is 140 cm tall (and that was a week and a half ago!)!  This Jack in the bean stalk onion appears to be a celebratory show-off, with a flower like no other, eagerly inviting pollinators to fertilize it to reproduce another unique Franz onion. Just goes to show, garden sex works!