Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: Catkin

While Steve relaxed on his trike, listening to music and slowly turning into a lizard, I wandered down to the edge of the Rogue River, where I looked around for fun things to photograph. I found these growing about a foot off the ground and I had no idea what they were at the time. I didn't even notice the characteristic "pussy willow" bumps because I was concentrating so completely on the flowers! When I saw this on my computer, I recognized what I'd taken a picture of and laughed! This is the first time I've seen these flowers in the wild!! Hooray!!!

I am constantly amazed at all the things I learn as I do research for my photo descriptions. For instance, I knew that this strange thing hanging from an Oak Tree branch was probably its flower, but what I discovered was that these are called "catkins" and are male flowers found on each branch. There are female flowers too, but they are extremely tiny and unfortunately the flowers are gone now so I'll have to take pictures of the female flowers next year. Another interesting fact is that when the female flowers that are pollenated, those are what will become acorns! Totally fascinating!! :D If you would like to learn more about Oak Tree Flowers with pictures of both the male and female flowers, this page is really wonderful: Backyard Nature: Oak Tree Flowers . For more information about White Oak Trees, Wiki has a nice page here: Wiki: White Oak Tree (Quercus garryana)