Post by coppice on Sept 12, 2011 7:40:59 GMT -5
How trees reproduce is full of terms like this, which often get heard as, there are male and female trees.
There are male and female parts to many trees, and there are good survival strategies for tree reproduction (as used by trees), but there mostly is not boy or girl trees.
I'll only on into trees like Holly--which do have male and female gender, if someone gets a burr in their bonnet about breeding them. it is off topic to just about all nut and fruit trees. 'An leave to somebody else who does care more about these (mostly non-food) trees.
Hazel nut is a shorter tree / taller bush. I'm gonna use it to point out some of the survival techniques trees use and is one short enough so that you could pull down the reproductive parts and put the gendered bits under your own magnifying glass, were you of a mind to.
Hazel nut has a male kalkin that produces pollen, and a female blossom that grows a nut. Oh you probably could grow a single example. On years when there are enough pollinators, its blossom might get enough pollen from itself to set nuts every fourth or fifth year. When you grow more than two hazel nut trees, the odds increase exponentially that every trees blossom gets enough pollen to set nuts--hence a whole lot more nuts.
Oaks use very similar reproductive strategies, If I was just 38 feet taller I might be able to spy if the same is true for Hickory-pecan-walnuts. But I'm gonna make the wager, that, how they reproduce is much the same as hazel nut(s).
Apple have both pollen producing and reproductive bit in the same flower. Some apple don't make much pollen, and many more apple would rather have anothers trees pollen to fructify. Bees do just about all the heavy lifting in this reproductive dance.
So fer instance its not so much that you must have two baldwin apple trees, rather bees will do their best work if you have a baldwin and a northern spy apple tree each within a hundred yards of each other (or so).
Bees don't care much for fences, a neighbors apple tree will suit their needs for nectar and pollen just fine, and both neighbors get apples as a result.
Peaches-plums-cherries use about the same reproductive strategies as apples.
I'm gonna lump Blueberries & raspberries in with the insect pollinated group.
As many times as I've had my face stuck into a grape arbor, and as understated as their reproductive bits are, I'm still not sure if they primarily insect or wind pollinated.
This little post does not fully explain self sterility. But it ain't just people who like a neighbor above playing with just them selves.
There are male and female parts to many trees, and there are good survival strategies for tree reproduction (as used by trees), but there mostly is not boy or girl trees.
I'll only on into trees like Holly--which do have male and female gender, if someone gets a burr in their bonnet about breeding them. it is off topic to just about all nut and fruit trees. 'An leave to somebody else who does care more about these (mostly non-food) trees.
Hazel nut is a shorter tree / taller bush. I'm gonna use it to point out some of the survival techniques trees use and is one short enough so that you could pull down the reproductive parts and put the gendered bits under your own magnifying glass, were you of a mind to.
Hazel nut has a male kalkin that produces pollen, and a female blossom that grows a nut. Oh you probably could grow a single example. On years when there are enough pollinators, its blossom might get enough pollen from itself to set nuts every fourth or fifth year. When you grow more than two hazel nut trees, the odds increase exponentially that every trees blossom gets enough pollen to set nuts--hence a whole lot more nuts.
Oaks use very similar reproductive strategies, If I was just 38 feet taller I might be able to spy if the same is true for Hickory-pecan-walnuts. But I'm gonna make the wager, that, how they reproduce is much the same as hazel nut(s).
Apple have both pollen producing and reproductive bit in the same flower. Some apple don't make much pollen, and many more apple would rather have anothers trees pollen to fructify. Bees do just about all the heavy lifting in this reproductive dance.
So fer instance its not so much that you must have two baldwin apple trees, rather bees will do their best work if you have a baldwin and a northern spy apple tree each within a hundred yards of each other (or so).
Bees don't care much for fences, a neighbors apple tree will suit their needs for nectar and pollen just fine, and both neighbors get apples as a result.
Peaches-plums-cherries use about the same reproductive strategies as apples.
I'm gonna lump Blueberries & raspberries in with the insect pollinated group.
As many times as I've had my face stuck into a grape arbor, and as understated as their reproductive bits are, I'm still not sure if they primarily insect or wind pollinated.
This little post does not fully explain self sterility. But it ain't just people who like a neighbor above playing with just them selves.