A Flower Opens
Adjacent to the Davilla plant mentioned in the last post is a guava plant whose species I do not know. It’s in flower now, and I’ve been noticing that it produces a new flower every day, and overnight the petals wilt and the stamens (pollen-bearing male parts) begin to fall off.
Since my curiosity was peaked by the apparently rapid opening of the Davilla flower, I decided to watch the guava closely while waiting for a Davilla bud to decide to open.
Here’s what I saw this morning, between 6:54 AM and 8:05 AM. It took about an hour and a quarter for the flower to go from a bud to a fully open flower. (Click on any image to enlarge.)
And then, when I returned after 3 in the afternoon, here was the fully mature flower.
Now go back and look at all the images again, paying attention to the flower on the left of the blooming one. What happens to it is what is going to happen to today’s blooming flower tomorrow. First the petals wilt and the stamens begin falling away By mid-afternoon all the stamens are gone. Only the pistil (female part) remains and you can see the fruit beginning to develop beneath it.
Ain’t nature grand?
Very interesting project diving deeper into natures purpose, bud opens quickly, to get the most to be pollinated and start the fruit. Fruit ripens, falls, seed makes roots, tree grows, matures and the process starts again, the way of nature. Fascinating. The pictures show very nicely the opening process of the flower and how quickly it happens.
Thanks for commenting, Titania.
Of course, not all flowers open this quickly, but I am becoming more aware of just how many plants do produce flowers that last for one day only. In such a case, they’d better be able to open fast!