 DESCRIPTION:
Shrub to 7'. Bark gray to maroon colored and somewhat spiny. Flowers whitish
to lavender, tubular, 4-5 lobed, to 3/8" long. Stamens stick out
beyond petals. Round berry is red at maturity. Leaves simple, smooth-edged,
linear to spatula-shaped to 1.25" long. Solanaceae (Nightshade or
Potato) Family.
NATURAL HISTORY: Flowers bloom mainly spring through fall. Flowers are
heterostylous, meaning some flowers have long stamens and short pistils
(thrum flowers) and other flowers have short stamens and long pistils
(pin flowers). This reduces the chance of self-pollination and promotes
cross-pollination because the long stamens of the thrum flowers leave
pollen on the part of the bee that the long pistils of the pin flowers
contact the bee and vice versa. Cross-pollination promotes genetic diversity
(see To Have Sex or Not)
and thus adaptability. |
