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Summer time and the living is easy! For those who don’t quite agree on the second part of Ella Fitzgerald’s line, we got a little proof for you. Nothing screams “sunshine” as much as berries, and people are going crazy about the beauty of their life cycles.

It all started when a Twitter user named Alfie shared a picture of blackberries in their different stages of life, all arranged in a circle. The caption said: “Blackberries have cool stages of life, no?" A whopping 1.1M who hit like couldn’t agree more. In no time, people got on the bandwagon posting their own berry, fruit, leaf, and flower assemblages.

Visually satisfying and emotionally refreshing, berry evolution pics are now reminding us that the beauty of nature can fit in the palm of your hand.

(h/t mymodernmet)

#3

Life Cycle Of A Blackberry

Life Cycle Of A Blackberry

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Dynein
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Anyone in for a small botany lesson about why this is not a "real" berry? As you probably know, flowers have male organs, the stamen which contain the pollen, and female organs, called pistil, which receive the pollen at the tip and have a roundish base at the bottom - the ovary. The ovules, which develop into seeds upon conception, are inside the ovary. The pollen consists of 3 cells - the job of one is to grow through the entire pistil to the ovary, where the two contained sperm cells are released. Have you ever really noticed how long flower pistils can be?! And the pollen has to stretch all the way to the bottom! I'm in awe whenever I see a female maize flower. The protruding threads, which usually remain on the cob, are the pistils. So VERY long. And the pollen grows all the way, oh my god. (to be continued in an answer to this comment...)

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We usually think of berries as a small, squishy type of fruit that can be picked off plants, but the scientific classification is far more complicated than that.

Berry nomenclature is so confusing “because people called certain fruits 'berries' thousands of years before scientists came up with a precise definition for the word,” believes Judy Jernstedt, who’s a professor of plant sciences at the University of California.

An interesting fact about berries is that in order to be one, it must bear two or more seeds. “Thus, a cherry, which has just one seed, doesn't make the berry cut,” Jernstedt explained. "They’re called drupes.”

#4

Since We’re Into Strawberry Cycles, I Sent The Post To My Dad (A Berry Farmer) And He Sent Me This:

Since We’re Into Strawberry Cycles, I Sent The Post To My Dad (A Berry Farmer) And He Sent Me This:

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#5

Life Cycle Of Tree Leaf

Life Cycle Of Tree Leaf

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#6

My Girlfriend Happened To Catch All 3 Stages In A Ladybugs Life Cycle On A Single Leaf!

My Girlfriend Happened To Catch All 3 Stages In A Ladybugs Life Cycle On A Single Leaf!

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Doggi
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

At my house, we have tons of ladybug larvae. It’s fun to see them all hatch.

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And when it feels like berries can't be more confusing, it turns out, yes, they can. Linda Ly, a botanist and blogger at Garden Betty, explains another bizarre botanical fact, which is that a banana is, in fact, a berry.

“During the flowering stage, an inflorescence, a banana heart, appears on the end of the stem. It is usually a long, tapered, tightly wrapped, deep purple bud.” As the buds open, “they reveal double rows of nectar-rich blossoms that make bees and hummingbirds go wild over them.”

Linda concludes that “Because the fruit is produced from a single ovary on the flower, a banana is actually classified as a berry, botanically speaking.”

#7

My Dad Sent Over The Blueberry Cycle!

My Dad Sent Over The Blueberry Cycle!

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Dynein
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Now THESE are real berries! Single structure grown from a single pistil, with the seeds all bundled up together inside.

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#9

Lemon Lifecycle

Lemon Lifecycle

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#10

Cacao Life Cycle

Cacao Life Cycle

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#12

Mulberries

Mulberries

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Cori
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

We have a tree in my yard and my kids have been stained purple for awhile now.

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#13

These Tiny Wild Strawberries, One Of Two Species Native To Atlantic Canada, Are Easy To Miss, Hiding Close To The Ground Under Their Much Larger Leaves

These Tiny Wild Strawberries, One Of Two Species Native To Atlantic Canada, Are Easy To Miss, Hiding Close To The Ground Under Their Much Larger Leaves

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#14

Strawberry Life Cycle

Strawberry Life Cycle

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#15

Oysters At Different Stages Of Growth

Oysters At Different Stages Of Growth

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#17

Life Cycle

Life Cycle

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Dynein
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Ooh, dandelions are weird, too! Dandelion flowers (as well as most flowers in their family) are really a COLLECTION of flowers. A single flowers is defined by being its own unit with, from outside to inside, petals, stamens, and pistils. The number of each can vary, and parts can be missing (there can be separate male and female flowers, and sometimes the petals are reduced), but the order cannot vary. Looking closely at a dandelion flower, you'll notice that it consists of individual parts - a leafy decorative structure (the petal(s)), which surrounds some stamen and has a little "thread" in the middle that's split at the tip - the upper part of the pistil. The whole structure sits on top of a green round base, which is the bottom of the pistil, i.e. the ovary. If all pistils shared the same stamens and petals, they'd be considered a single flower, but that's not the case, so each petals/stamens/pistil(s) bundle is counted separately.

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#19

Life Is A Cycle , The End Of One Journey Is The Beginning Of Next "Chill's Cycle"

Life Is A Cycle , The End Of One Journey Is The Beginning Of Next "Chill's Cycle"

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#22

Milkweed

Milkweed

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Nicky OldfieldDesciple
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Beautiful colours. I am a Synesthete. I see colours when I hear music and the colours of these flowers are exactly the colours I see when I hear the song "I'll find My Way Home " by Jon and Vangelis.

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#23

That Beautiful Life Cycle

That Beautiful Life Cycle

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#24

In The Style Of The Strawberry Pics A Few Days Ago, Here's Our Aubergine Plants Ordered By Their Growth Stage

In The Style Of The Strawberry Pics A Few Days Ago, Here's Our Aubergine Plants Ordered By Their Growth Stage

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