This scarlet pimpernel Anagallis arvensis plant was growing on the edge of some fields on the seashore at Low Newton in Northumberland. You can use this plant as a rough-and-ready clock because its flowers, which exhibit natural rhythmic sleep movements, always close up at around 3pm. in the afternoon (I took this photo at about 1pm.). It isn’t a very reliable time-piece though, as the flowers also tend to close if the sun clouds over and it begins to rain, so it’s a fair-weather clock. Quite a few plants have these natural flower closure mechanisms at different times of day – most notably Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon Tragopogon pratensis.In 1822 John Claudius Loudon, in his Encyclopedia of Gardening, listed 25 plant species with different flower closure times and suggested that they could be planted as a floral sun dial - which would be colourful but erratic.
Posts
Well, I never knew that.
ReplyDeleteAnd what an amazing sundial all those flowers would make.
Hi Phil,
ReplyDeleteI've noticed the Yellow-wort Blackstonia perfoliata behaving similarly on Bembridge Down, closing up flowers around late-afternoon.
Nice one, Phil. I never knew that about Scarlet Pimpernel. Thanks for sharing it.
ReplyDeleteWhatever the time, its a great macro shot Phil.
ReplyDeleteHi Keith, I don't know whether anyone has ever followed up on Loudon's planting plan and produced a living sundial.
ReplyDeleteThat's intersting about the Blackstomia Rob....I was photographing it on the Durham coast one morning a few days ago, when all the flowers were open.
ReplyDeleteThanks Roy, all down to the remarkable close-focussing (1 cm) and depth of focus of a point-and-shoot Pentax W20 pocket camera..
ReplyDeleteHi Dean, the plant has fascinating seed capsules too, spherical with a line of weaknes around the circumference so they come apartas two hemispheres, like those old school geography map globes
ReplyDelete