Team+Awesome+and+Their+Super+Awesome+Special+Bottlebrush

=**Crimson Bottlebrush**= //Callistemon sp//

//Pollination and Fertilisation//
Bottlebrush are hermaphroditic inflorescences, meaning both the female and male organs are located on the same flower which is clustered together among many flowers. For the Bottlebrush to successfully pollinate, the pollen located in the anthers must reach the stigma of the flower, which extends above the anthers in the center of the flower as shown in figure 1.

//Floral Morphology and Visitations//
There are multiple stamen, made up by the filament and the anther, which surround the carpel. The carpel extends down into the centre of the ovule found at the base of the flower in the calyx tube. The carpel also extends above the stamen (figure 1). This extended height of the stamen allows for birds and other animals to collect pollen from the anthers whilst visiting the flower, which will then be rubbed against the carpel as the animal leaves the flower.

Figure 1. //Labelled diagram of an individual Crimson Bottlebrush flower with inset showing the female reproductive ovule//

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Calipers were used to measure the height of the main structures of the Bottlebrush inflorescence (figure 2 and table 1). The average total height of the inflorescence was 10.5cm and the width was 5cm. There was around 30 individual flowers found on each inflorescence. The flowers were arranged in a spiral pattern around the cylindrical flower spike as seen in figure 2. The flowers are in close proximity to each other and several flower spikes (or inflorescences) can be found on a single stem.=====

There is potential for human error when recording measurements, however the use of multiple replicates makes the data collected more reliable.

Figure 2. //Measuring different between flowers using calipers//

Table 1. //Average height of various structures of the Bottlebrush inflorescence// (height) || Stamen (height) || Petal (height) || Calyx Tube (Width) ||
 * Structure || Carpel
 * Average Measurement (mm) || 17.3 || 11.6 || 4.9 || 5.2 ||
 * Standard Deviation (mm) || 4.35 || 4.17 || 2.18 || 1.23 ||

//Pollen Morphology//
The pollen was collected from the anthers using a small 2mm x 2mm square of fuschin gelatin. The pollen is triangular in shape and highly abundant (figure 3 and figure 4). The abundance of pollen could lend itself to ease of pollination as there is lots of pollen available to be transferred to the carpel by insects and birds as well as abiotic factors such as wind.

Figure 3. //Pollen at 100x magnification//

Figure 4. //Pollen at 40x magnification//

//Nectar Characterisation//
The nectar in the Bottlebrushes is located within each individual flower in the flower's calyx tube (figure 1). The nectar sampled had a sugar concentration of 31%. This high concentration suggests that the pollinators that visit this plant are likely looking for a food reward. As mentioned before, birds who pollinate the Bottlebrush would brush their heads against the anthers and carpel whilst collecting nectar from within the calyx tube, aiding the pollination process.

Barney, Tamasine, David, Holly, Mariana, Gyeongjin, Nick