Virtual Museum of Canada
Jardin botanique de Montréal 
Centre for Forest Research

Transcription of video clip The next generation

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From flower to fruit: a catalpa, sugar maple, black walnut and royal paulownia

Photomontage showing the diversity of tree flowers

© Bioimages, bioimages.vanderbilt.edu/
Catalpa, sugar maple, black walnut and royal paulownia flowers

Sugar maple flowers turn into very familiar fruit.
The ovaries fuse in pairs and develop membranous wings that help disperse the seeds.
It's the famous "helicopter" fruit.

These tiny black walnut flowers develop into large, rough fruit 4 to 5 cm in diameter.
When the fruit falls to the ground, the husk, with a fleshy inner surface, doesn't open by itself.
The seeds have to wait until it decomposes.

A catalpa flower becomes a dry fruit called a capsule.
Once the ovules have been fertilized, the stigmata and petals fall off, leaving only the ovary, which lengthens.
The capsule, as it develops, contains several seeds.
When the small winged seeds are mature, the fruit is ripe. It opens and releases the seeds.

Image of a paulownia fruit

© Bioimages, bioimages.vanderbilt.edu/
Paulownia fruit

A paulownia flower, like that of a catalpa, also turns into a capsule, but takes a round shape.

Catalpa and paulownia capsules are botanically similar, but very different visually.

Perfect examples of the amazing diversity of tree fruit.


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