Minimalist flower

The showy golden male catkins of hazel get all the attention, waving in the breeze and dispersing pollen far and wide. But the tiny female catkins are so often overlooked, pared down flowers consisting of a cluster of bright red stigmas, textured and sticky, like the tentacles of small sea-anemones. If you look very closely you can just see the pollen grains that have been captured. In due course fertilization will take place, and by the autumn there'll be a crop of hazelnuts, food for a range of woodland creatures.