Timing Flower Manipulation
Dale performs a test to better understand the perfect penstemon flowers. The day a flower fully opens, he removes the stamens from a flower using a tweezer and then covers the flower. He tags the flower that he tested. Weeks later, he checks this plant and finds that it produced seed.
Removing stamens the day the flower opens. Image by Dale Lindgren
A tagged penstemon flower. Image by Dale Lindgren
Pestemon seeds harvested from a penstemon flower. Image by Dale Lindgren
Based on what Dale learned from his stamen removal experiment, he decides to try a new method of plant breeding. Before the flower is fully open, Dale carefully grabs the petals and removes them. The only remaining part of the flower is the pistil. Dale then performs the operations shown in the pictures below.
Removing the petals from the flower... Image by Dale Lindgren
...also removes the stamens from the flower... Image by Dale Lindgren
...leaving the pistil as the only remaining part of the flower. Image by Dale Lindgren