Exotic flower spike of the Horse Chestnut, Heddon Welfare Park
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Exotic flower spike of the Horse Chestnut, Heddon Welfare Park by Andrew Curtis as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
Exotic flower spike of the Horse Chestnut, Heddon Welfare Park
Image: © Andrew Curtis Taken: 11 May 2020
Horse chestnut trees (Aesculus hippocastanum) in full flower are a spectacular sight with many thousands of flowers in large pyramidal inflorescences, often known as 'candles'. The flowers show variation in the number of floral parts and also in the colour of their petals - the 'blotches' on the petals (nectar guides) range from yellow through salmon pink to a pinkish-red (carmine). The flowers with yellow nectar guides are more visited by pollinating insects. Many of the flowers function as 'male only' flowers in which the female parts (gynoecium) remain undeveloped.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
54.997047
Longitude
-1.795671