spurge flower parts. Birna?

[Andrea B.]

Did I get this correctly? Every spurge seems to have a different arrangement of flower parts.

 

There are 4 very short appendages surrounding the labeled anther. What are those?

(There are 3 anthers.)

 

What are the bracts surrounding the ovaries called?

 

What are the two underlying bracts called?

 

The entire "flower" structure, which contains the two female and one male flower, is called a cyathium.

 

This is E. myrsinites, donkey tail spurge.

 

[nfoto]

All the answers you seek are found here,

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyathium

 

Saves me some heavy typing

[bvf]

Here's Wood Spurge that I took in UV last year. Baader U, flash. Right image of a stereo pair.

 

[Andrea B.]

Nice one, Bernard. You should make an entry in the botanical section. We would love to have it.

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Birna, the labled cyathium in Wikipedia confuses me. I couldn't quite relate my flower parts to those flower parts. I think that the two paired bigger bracts under the 3 structures must be the involucre aka cyathophyll?

 

But I am not sure I have correctly labeled the anthers? If the two-knobbed green thing topped by pollen is indeed an anther on a filament, then what are those small white tipped appendages which surround it? (Note there are 3 two-knobbed green things topped by pollen.)

 

Also I am not sure whether the involucre contains one male and two female "flowers" or whether each of those structures is a single flower containing both male and female parts?

[nfoto]

Euphorbia isn't for the uninitiated -- that's for sure Basically you are right in surmising a lot of (specialised) appendages. As Bernhard's photo shows, there can be even more complex, multi-tiered arrangements.

 

Imagine have a pot simmering with female and male parts and reducing it over time to a stock broth to be sprinkled over the topmost leaves of a spurge plant. Nature has its own way of doing the basic thing.

[bvf]

If you look at the two stems coming out of the lower "plate" there are some dark filaments just behind the front stem. I don't know if these are part of the plant, or the legs of a tiny insect behind the stem. There were certainly insects on the plant - I caught something that looked like a small aphid in the visible image of this flower.