Whatzit?

[chuck]

Foxglove? That's the only one with the toxins and overall shape.

[webenda]

Not foxglove although one of its color variations is the color of foxglove.



If you google search on the above image your will discover one of the common names for Kalanchoe.
http://veterinarymedicine.dvm360.com/to ... oning-pets

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Now, those flowers look sad, or more likely are protecting themselves from the intense desert sun, huh.

[webenda]

Very perceptive Murph, they are sad because they cannot make viable seed--they will have no babies.
In some Kalanchoe species, there are no male plants. I dissected one of the flowers to see if that was the case with these.



Each flower has eight anthers and a style with a split end, no stigma. The female part of the flower is missing a vital part. This kalanchoe can't produce viable seeds.



Edit 1 to correct the names of parts of this flower.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

But isn't the white powdery-looking stuff sperm?

[webenda]

But isn't the white powdery-looking stuff sperm?

Not exactly, it is pollen grains.

Flowering plant sperm cells cannot move on their own. To reach another flower they are contained within pollen grains. Flowering plants rely on some form of transportation, like a pollen trolley or maybe a bee to transport the pollen grains. For example, a bee lands on a plant to collect the nectar. Some pollen will get stuck to the bee. The bee moves on to another plant and the pollen falls onto that plant's flower. The sperm still can't move anywhere on their own. If, perchance, the pollen lands on the stigma of a flower of the same species, a pollen tube grows from the pollen grain, through the style, and into the ovary. The sperm still can't move on their own so the pollen tube moves the sperm down the pollen tube and into the ovary which contains the ovules. Fertilization occurs when one of the sperm cells fuses with an egg inside of an ovule.



My kalanchoe flowers have no stigma, only the style leading to the ovary. The style itself seems to be split into 4 ends without stigma. No stigma = no pollen tube = no baby plants.

[webenda]

WHAT is this coming down the hill?!

[robert.]

A wind turbine blade.
Look up how peanut flowers pollinate. It's a reverse process.

[chuck]

Based on the road signs, the hill appears to be in Canada? Probably Western Canada, Alberta. A megaload of a piece of oil sand refinery equipment?

[webenda]

No, not related to the power industry.

Peanuts plant themselves after the flowers are pollinated, I think it is called pegging. That is a little strange but stranger still is that they can reproduce from the flower with no help from any pollen. The peanut flower fuses an egg with another egg in order to produce a complete set of chromosomes (no sperm required.) That is not the opposite of Kalanchoe, which produce baby plants without the help of flowers, eggs or sperm. They grow plantlets on the leaves. When ready the baby plants fall to the ground and form a carpet of new Kalanchoe. So many babies that the Kalanchoe's nickname is, "Mother of thousands."


Baby Kalanchoes growing from Kalanchoe leaves.

No, not related to the oil industry.

The thing was made in Tucson.

Here it is a piece of it at 6th and Warren in Tucson.

[chuck]

The UA stadium is at that location but so is the telescope mirror fabrication lab, under the east side. Actually the Richard Caris Mirror Lab. Telescope mirror

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-education/2017/11/13/university-of-arizona-worlds-largest-telescope-mirrors/840730001/

BTW, is that what you no passing signs look like? I've never seen one like that in the states, just in Canada.

[webenda]

The UA stadium is at that location but so is the telescope mirror fabrication lab, under the east side. Actually the Richard Caris Mirror Lab. Telescope mirror

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-education/2017/11/13/university-of-arizona-worlds-largest-telescope-mirrors/840730001/

BTW, is that what you no passing signs look like? I've never seen one like that in the states, just in Canada.

Close enough, the Whatzit image is of the LSST mirror (same size as one of the seven Magellan mirrors) in Chile making the final part of its trip from Tucson to the El Peñón peak of Cerro Pachón in northern Chile. The "No Passing" signs are in Chile.

The image in Tucson is of the bottom half of the inner shipping container for the LSST mirror. Once the mirror was placed on the bottom half, the top half was placed over the mirror and fastened to the bottom half. Then the inner container was placed in a sealed shipping container. Next the integrated assembly was taken to Houston to be loaded on a freighter to Chile. The Whatzit image is the complete shipping container. I think it strange that the Chilean transportation company loaded the thing so it is as wide a load as possible.

Here at the U of A mirror lab, they use a vacuum lift system to pick up mirrors and place them in shipping containers.

Note the blue polymer protective coating that will be removed when the mirror reaches the LSST site.

[robert.]

Are you sure your bottom photo is in the USA? There is a USA dot law. No wide load moves at night.

[webenda]

Are you sure your bottom photo is in the USA? There is a USA dot law. No wide load moves at night.

The container is about 30 feet wide. Moves within Tucson were between 3 AM and 4 AM. Move out of state started at 3 AM. They had to park it at 7 AM when on the interstate roads.

https://cdn2.webdamdb.com/md_g6Hmx7gua7 ... 1540938298

PERMITS: Arizona oversize permits are valid for four days. Drivers have the option of purchasing permits at most Ports of Entry.

OPERATING TIME: Daylight hours, (one-half hour before sunrise to one-half hour after sunset). Loads/vehicles not over 10′ wide or 14′ high or not over 10′ rear overhang are allowed continuous travel. Loads not over 14′ wide, 16′ high, 120′ long and 250,000 pounds may travel on Interstate and specified state routes from 3:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon on weekends (except on holiday weekends and in curfew areas), but this must be requested when permit is ordered and must be stated on the permit. Note that loads over 11′ wide will be required to have one escort to travel from 3 a.m. to noon on weekends, and loads 15′ high and over will need escort with height pole.

RESTRICTED TRAVEL: No O/D or O/W loads allowed on I-17, I-10 and SR 60 within city limits of greater Phoenix area, or I-10 or I-19 within city limits of greater Tucson area between hours of 7:00 – 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 – 6:00 p.m. weekdays. Local “Courtesy Permit”/route approval is required for O/D travel within Phoenix and Tucson.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Are you sure your bottom photo is in the USA? There is a USA dot law. No wide load moves at night.

Huh?

I see oversize loads at night all the time so that they avoid dealing with traffic and never during rush hour periods

7:00 – 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 – 6:00 p.m. weekdays

anywhere.

Moves within Tucson were between 3 AM and 4 AM. Move out of state started at 3 AM. They had to park it at 7 AM when on the interstate roads.

That's what I do see and they are pulled off on the side of the road until traffic is light.