By John Coldebella
ONE of the most prominent colours in the January garden is yellow. Four plants provide most of the contribution: zucchini and pumpkin flowers and sunflowers abound and attract bees. The fourth plant is the evening primrose, which, as its name suggests, makes its entrance in the evening.
The evening primrose, or Oenothera Biennis, is a flower from the botanical family Onagraceae. I don't know if my translation app is dodgy, but when I looked up the English version of this Latin term it came up with wild asses. This came as somewhat of a surprise, not the kind of imagery that comes to mind when observing this plant.
Perhaps it's a reference to the type of people who would park themselves in front of a plant in the hope of seeing a flower opening before their eyes. That’s exactly what can be seen in a performance that occurs over an hour or so pre dusk in the summer months. It is also an accurate description to say that this spectacle “unfolds” before your very eyes.
ONE of the most prominent colours in the January garden is yellow. Four plants provide most of the contribution: zucchini and pumpkin flowers and sunflowers abound and attract bees. The fourth plant is the evening primrose, which, as its name suggests, makes its entrance in the evening.
The evening primrose, or Oenothera Biennis, is a flower from the botanical family Onagraceae. I don't know if my translation app is dodgy, but when I looked up the English version of this Latin term it came up with wild asses. This came as somewhat of a surprise, not the kind of imagery that comes to mind when observing this plant.
Perhaps it's a reference to the type of people who would park themselves in front of a plant in the hope of seeing a flower opening before their eyes. That’s exactly what can be seen in a performance that occurs over an hour or so pre dusk in the summer months. It is also an accurate description to say that this spectacle “unfolds” before your very eyes.
| Native to North America but found all over the world, this plant is regarded as an environmental weed in Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. It is said to have various beneficial properties. In her book The Illustrated Language of Flowers, author Frances Kelly claims that this flower is rich in vitamins, more so than traditional salad plants. Capsules containing oil derived from the seeds are commercially available for treating various ailments and conditions; however, the jury is still out on such claims. Plants begin to appear during winter from the fallen seeds of the previous season's crop. Numerous long narrow leaves radiate from the centre and hug the ground as does the flat weed. After a few months of this, a stem begins to rise from which other stems branch off. It is on these stems which attain a height of well over one metre that the flowers are produced. Prior to opening, the flower buds are cylindrical, tapering to a point and approximately 5cm in length and 1 cm in diameter. Observing these buds in the late afternoon, you would not be inclined to put money on their opening before dark. The petals are held within a sheath of a pinkish, purplish colour with yellowish, greenish stripes running along its length. Around this time, the delicate petals which are tightly wrapped around each other begin to unwind in a clockwise direction. This process begins to produce cracks in the outer sheath, revealing a glimpse of the radiant yellow bloom within. From this point, it can take up to an hour for the flower to break free from its containment as it continues to expand in diameter while unwinding. Then the real show begins. Some blooms will open completely in a matter of seconds while others will do it in two phases, always continuing a clockwise unwinding. It has to be seen to be appreciated. In the peak of the season, with up to 30 flowers opening over the course of an hour, four or five may open almost simultaneously within seconds of each other. As light begins to fade, the radiance of the blooms increases but their beauty is short lived. The day after opening, they begin to wilt and are hardly recognisable by the following evening when the show starts again with a new batch of blooms. |   A new flower is about to bloom, next to the remains of last night's flower show. |