Comments on: plants falling asleep

By: love

love — Sun, 23 May 2010 06:38:38 +0000

I’m doing this for a school project.
Why don’t you add extra pictures or something. The info is good. I love the purple oxalis.

By: lostlandscape

lostlandscape — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 23:32:51 +0000

Skeeter, I like your take on this. Some folks (not me!) are major night owls, and there are plants like datura, night-blooming jasmine or four o’clocks that don’t open up until near dusk but stay open late into the evening or the next morning.

CM, I love the language too, and the fact that people have observed a behavior closely enough that they decided it needed a name. And thanks for the tag! I’ve sworn off memes, but I might assemble something if time and inspiration cooperate!

By: country mouse

country mouse — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:16:01 +0000

I love botanical language. But I think photnasty is when I forget to clean my lens and there’s a big blob on all the images from a shoot!

BTW our blog was tagged with an “Honest Scrap” award by Christine at Idora Design — I did the post for us mice and tagged you (and six others) in turn. Don’t feel obligated — but have fun if you like.

By: skeeter

skeeter — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:14:42 +0000

I view these plants like people. Some people are full of energy and can go with little sleep, while others need more rest to be able to live up to their full potential when awake. . In some countries they have long lunch hours so people can take a nap. These plants just don’t wake up from their nap until the next day…

By: lostlandscape

lostlandscape — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:02:15 +0000

Noelle, I was surprised myself. I thought it was just daylight. But then on bright but cold mornings I have a hard time getting out of bed, so it makes sense that there’s more going on than just sunlight.

Ryan, I hadn’t thought of this in the context of garden shows or garden shows where the displays are all shaded. It’d be catastrophic to do an amazing garden design where the flowers failed to open!

Sunny, thank you!

EE, what you say about the wind reminds me of the one trip I took to the California Poppy Preserve. After traveling 4 hours from my home on a cold, stormy day, I learned that California poppies are one of the plants that keeps their flowers closed in inclement weather–like some of the plants in your Namaqualand displays. What a disappointment that was.

Tina, I agree. The more I find out about plants the more interesting they become.

Susan, I have a bit of a lazy streak too. It took me how many decades to finally research this one? But I hope you’ll indulge me the occasional post with pretty pictures but with zero information content…

Carol, thanks! That first is my favorite of the bunch as well. The little tubular buds on the oxalis are pretty cool how they shade from white to yellow to green.

By: Carol

Carol — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 02:32:17 +0000

I forgot to say … your photos are stunning… Love the first one especially! Great title too!

By: Carol

Carol — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 02:30:39 +0000

Wonderful post James! It is so interesting to observe plants and to learn about their inner clocks and intelligence. Botany is a fascinating subject. ;>)

By: susan morrison (garden-chick)

susan morrison (garden-chick) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 01:35:55 +0000

James, I love it that when you notice something interesting happening, you actually take the time to research it. I must confess that unless the information comes to be in an absolutely effortless way, I am much too lazy to find out more.

Which of course, is why I visit here.

By: tina

tina — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:47:57 +0000

Plants are just amazing things to be so sensitive to their surroundings.

By: Elephant's Eye

Elephant's Eye — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:25:39 +0000

And one day, if you come to Namaqualand in the Northern Cape (South Africa) to see those flowers at home in the spring — you go out to look at flowers between 10 and 4. They keep very civilized hours. If it is overcast, or windy — then they don’t get out of bed. But when it all comes toghether …