Lizzie Harper's Rosehip Anatomy

I came across Lizzie Harper's beautiful botanical illustrations yesterday and loved her insights and suggestions for how to look at rosehips.

I learnt some things about rosehips that I did not know before:

"The red fleshy part of a rosehip is actually just a shell, a hypanthium.  Within this, though, lurk the seeds.

Inside the skin of the hypanthium is fleshy tissue,  and areas crammed with seeds.  Each of these seeds is, in fact, not a seed but a fruit, called an achene (for more on achenes check out my blog).  Lots of single fruits or achenes.  Inside each of these, lies a seed.

So to find the seed of a rose you need to travel through the red external skin, through the fleshy tissue, and through the achene wall of a single fruit.  There, at the heart of things, sits your rose seed.

The rosehip is a perfectly designed seed-pod."

It was a great read with some beautiful illustrations. If you want to read the full blog post click here.