This weeks microscopy features Senna artemisioides ! This is a gorgeous yellow-flowered shrub that can grow up to 3m high. In Victoria it’s found around Melbourne and in the west/central of the state. It’s in the pea family (Fabaceae) subfamily Caesalpinioideae and does not have a typical pea-shaped flower (subfamily Faboidea). Instead it has 5 rounded petals of unequal size and a showy display of long brown anthers at its centre.
It is a buzz-pollinated plant (it has poricidal anthers), requiring bees to vibrate at a specific frequency to release its pollen. They kind of look like weird bananas (the tips remind me of sweet lil' ball python faces).
Here I've cut off the anther tips so you can see the pollen formation, the light coloured balls along the inner edges.
