Swamp Maple Sexuality

It seems that my earlier post on Maple Blossoms illustrated only male flowers. Here's a shot of female flowers. When viewed from a distance the females are decidedly redder--the males have a yellowish fringe.















I'll go out on a limb with some technical terms as I try to describe the sexuality of the Swamp Maple. This tree can vary between monoecious and dioecious. My local males have very few female flowers, while the females don't appear to have any male flowers.

This post wouldn't be possible without a little help from my friends.

My neighbor Jim kindly climbed up onto the roof of his truck to harvest the twigs for today's photo. Thanks Jim!

My co-worker George supplied this link to assist with the sexual terminology. Thanks George!

And speaking of friends, I'd like to introduce Valerie Littlewood, hostess of the Pencil and Leaf blog. Val is presenting an exhibition of her most wonderful drawings and paintings at Leu Gardens, Orlando, the source of her inspiration. Here's a list of works on sale.

I have some of her art--it's incredibly beautiful work. See this post for pictures of that artwork and how I came by them.