#NewThisDay Writing From My Photo Stream
Evening Primrose on the Railroad Tracks
I love learning the names of wild plants. Yesterday morning I took a picture of a bright yellow, four-petaled flower I didn't recognize. When I looked it up at home, I learned: evening primrose. But, I wondered why it was wide open in the morning.
“Oenothera biennis has a life span of two years (biennial) growing to 30–150 cm (12–59 in) tall. . .
Blooming lasts from late spring to late summer. The flowers are hermaphrodite, produced on a tall spike and only last until the following noon. They open visibly fast every evening producing an interesting spectacle, hence the name “evening primrose.”
The blooms are yellow, 2.5–5 cm (0.98–1.97 in) diameter, with four bilobed petals. The flower structure has an invisible to the naked eye bright nectar guide pattern. This pattern is apparent under ultraviolet light and visible to its pollinators, moths, butterflies, and bees.”
Instead of walking this morning, I took a run,and crossing a different meadow, saw out of the corner of my eye what I instantly guessed was evening primrose - unopened. After more searching today, I learned the evening primrose opens around 9 p.m. in the evening, and it stays open until about noon the next day. I also found a youtube video of an evening primrose opening - you can watch it below. All this naming and observing and mystery solving of beautiful plants growing wild simply makes me very happy, and very satisfied.
Watch This Evening Primrose Flower Opening 1 - from Youtube
Real time (not time-lapse) recording of an evening primrose flower opening. Every evening at dusk, two dozen or so new flowers open up on this plant. The blossoms only last until the following day. It has been blooming for weeks. Recorded August 11, 2006, Toronto, Canada using a Nikon Coolpix 3700 digital camera.
Evening Primrose, Photo by Kelly DuMar, taken & posted, yesterday, August 11, 2017
All photos and text copyright Kelly DuMar 2017 unless otherwise attributed