Squash Flowers

Earlier I mentioned that when I figured out how to identify which squash flowers were male and which were female I would write about it.   Today I woke up and when out into the garden and found the squash that I still have in the pot in full bloom.  There was orange everywhere underneath the leaves.  So I thought it would be nice to collect more squash flower photos and to my discovery, some had fruits attached.

Squash in the Pot

The first few pictures are those that I photographed in the pot above then I went over to the squash I planted in the garden.  The first ones in the pot you will notice are a long fruit.   So these are either Dark Green Zucchini or Straightneck Early Yellow.   The ones next to the corn are round so I think these are Pumpkin - Small Sugar.

Female Flower

 As I found out there are two ways to identify a female from a male flower.   One I read about is that the females have a fruit at the base.  The other way which I discovered by observing the flowers is the middle of the flower where the fuzzy pollen resides is very different in the female flower than it is in the male flower.   Above is pictures the female flower.  You can see the little horseshoe ring like structures that are really very decorative.   While the male flower has a simpler center that is just a little rod sticking up.

Male Flower

Squash

Flower Female Bud

Female Flower

One thing I discovered while observing these flowers is that there are bees quietly visiting the flowers collecting nectar and pollinating.

Bee visiting flowers

Bee visiting the squash flowers

Female Flower

Male Flower

Female Flower Bud

Male Flower Bud

Female Flower and Female Flower Bud

Female Flower

Female Flower

Male Flower

Female Flower Bud

Female Flower Bud

The funny thing about the order in which these bloomed and when I could identify a fruit is that those that bloomed first still have not shown any signs of fruit and those that bloomed later have signs of fruit.

There you go.  How to identify the male and female flowers.  Hopefully the abundance of the photos will give an ample amount of examples to eliminate any doubt or confusion.