Aberdeenshire Scotland. National trust Scotland. crathes castle gardens - Google Search Huge walled garden. Arrived rather late...very little time ...gates locked at 4.00 p.m. Saw this. No time for more pics...so sorry. My money is on Lonicera. Gardener nearby pointed to label at base...Weigela florida minuet! Err no .....I do not think so. Rather hairy. twin flowers. As always a 2nd opinion very welcome. In
Update. I sent e mail to Head gardener...James Hannaford.....Just had a kind reply. This is a new to me honeysuckle...never seen it before. "The shrub you did see is indeed a shrubby lonicera it’s; Lonicera chaetocarpa. It is unusual & certainly one of my preferred lonicera, It is also very drought tolerant & seemed to take the -14 Celsius we had this winter." Lonicera chaetocarpa - Trees and Shrubs Online File:Lonicera chaetocarpa - Flickr - peganum (2).jpg - Wikimedia Commons File:Lonicera chaetocarpa - Flickr - peganum (3).jpg - Wikimedia Commons
One of his preferred lonicera, yet! I always feel just as clever when I can say that I haven't seen something before as when I recognize something.
I'm still confused as to what I am looking at inside the bracts though. Is that the ovary just before fruit development? Images I find show a flower or fruit there, so I am confused. It looks like the line drawing of the transverse section of ovary from the Curtis Botanical article. Botanicus.org: Curtis's botanical magazine.
Sorry for poor pics. Pic 5. I assumed the 2 things inside those bracts are top of ovaries after petals have dropped off and before the berries are formed. I will have to try another visit earlier in the year to catch the twin flowers.
The "basal sac" mentioned two pages after the Curtis page you linked to? I don't know what that term means, though. Botanicus.org: Curtis's botanical magazine. It says on that page that figure 4 on the page you linked to is a transverse section of ovary. You can view the three pages on this by changing the incrementing or decreasing the page number in the URL or clicking the right arrow at the upper right corner.
Lonicera chaetocarpa. I was so intrigued I went back again last week. Had longer so took more pics. Berries now forming. Would now like to get pics of the flowers. Crathes castle walled garden on the North East coast of Scotland near Banchory/Aberdeenshire is amazing. Full of tender stuff that has no place growing so far North. Pity it is a 6 hour, 3 x bus journey away. Hey ho.
It looks like a very early version of the fruits, when they're just starting to form but all the hairs are there already.
