Bluet/ Quaker Ladies

In the year 1942, Bluet was the very first flower on Patsy's list. She made note of it on April 1, 1942. Bluets seem like such a simple and humble flower ... thus the common name Quaker Ladies. The Bluet is really more complex than it appears. What you are seeing is a flower without petals... What looks like four petals are really just lobes of the corolla which is the funnel like base of the flower. Also these quaint little flowers are Dimophous, which means they occur in two forms. I have included two close up photos of the opening of the corolla so you can see what is meant by Dimophous. If you click on the photos to get a closer look you will see that one opening has a two lobed stigma sticking out, and the other has four anthers that seem to fill the opening of the corolla and not sticking out at all. The stigma is the head of the female part of the flower and anthers are the head of the male parts of the flower. Each flower has both male and female parts but they are out of reach from each other. In the flower where the two lobed stigma is so long that it goes beyond the opening of the corolla the anters are positioned only half way up the inside of the corolla and the opposite occurs in the other flower where the male parts are longer. This insures that they do not self pollinate and are dependent on insects for cross pollination. Now, to look at it, you never would have guessed that this flower is such a complex little beauty.