Close view of stigma and anthers of an Amaryllis blossom... Jan 26, 2010

I noticed an Amaryllis macro on Flickr awhile back where the image showed the stigma of the flower as you see it here. I had to look up flower parts in order to name this part of the flower... it is the part of the flower that gathers pollen to aid in flower reproduction. The anthers carry the pollen and when it is released, or gathered by friendly pollinators, some of the pollen will wind up on the sticky part of the stigma. The other thing I learned about the stigma is that many flowers have stigmas that will selectively reject pollen from plants other than their own kind.

Anyway, I just experimented today with capturing a close-up of these parts of my Amaryllis, currently on its second round of blossoms. Hope you enjoy it and that you are having a great week!