Purple saxifrage
Glen Lyon, 06/05/84
~ Flowering so early in the year, and in relatively hostile locations, this saxifrage has to work hard to attract insect pollinators. As a result, the flowers are profuse, large, colourful and seductive, with copious nectaries at the base of the twin styles. To avoid self-pollination, the ten anthers ripen first - three here are ripe, and the rest will follow before the stigma becomes receptive. As a last resort, it may reluctantly self-pollinate, but if in spite of everything there is a failure of fertilisation one year, it is no great disaster, as the plants are long-lived.