Bugs are on my bush! Or not.

Bugs are on my bush!  And I've never seen them before!  Ah, an alarming observation, so naturally you call your local neighborhood botanist. Here they are.  Are the related to ladybugs? I'm sure they've never been there before.  Now before even going for a look, TPP had explained that "bugs"

are not his forte, but in this case not to worry.  One part of this is correct. This person had probably not ever seen these on their bush before, either because they just never noticed these pretty small but rather attractive structures or because their plant finally got mature enough and reached a reproductive age.  By now you've probably figured out both the plant and the true nature of the "bugs".  Yes?  This is actually a bit tricky from just seeing a bit of the leafy twigs, but this is the genus Chamaecyparis, a so-called "false cypress".  These are pollen cones, rather colorful ones, and they don't last long.  Once the pollen is dumped the cones, which are only 4-5 mm long are quickly shed.  This would have been funner if only they had called their friendly, local entomologist first.  That would have been amusing. 

Look what's "flowering"!

During a recent greenhouse visit a species of Ephedra was in "flower". Ephedra is a small shrubby plant of cool deserts better known as the source of ephedrine, and in Asia it's long been an herbal remedy for asthma and poor circulation. Here's several of the pollen producing cones. Branching structures that bear the sporangia and protrude out from among bracts that compose the little cones. The bracts occur in pairs and subtend the sporangia bearing axes each of which during development is enveloped by a fused pair of smaller bracts. So here's a pollen producing structure surrounded by a pair of modified leaves growing in the axil of a bract. That's pretty flower-like even down to having a perianth. Ephedra even has double fertilization, but both produce zygotes, although only one will develop, so no endosperm is formed. The genus is a member of the gnetophytes, a group of pretty strange plants that was once thought to have affinities to flowering plants.