Dipelta yunnanensis

A touch of breeze and the brown wafer thin seed pods of this Dipelta yunnanensis are set quivering on the leafless shoots.
The twin wing like bracts give momentum to the achene as they disperse from the parent plant in the wind.
A native to mixed forests of SW China where seed was collected in Yunnan Province at the altitudinal extremity of 2995m. The entry in the Flora of China gives an altitudinal range from 800 – 2400m.

Text and photos by Tony Garn.