A day in the life of a cactus flower

Since this is the season for many cacti to flower, I’ve been spending a lot of time observing and photographing these marvels of the plant kingdom. As is the case with many other flowering plants, most cacti flowers are open during the day and closed at night. I’m going to illustrate this cycle with a cactus I bought a couple of weekends ago at the Carmichael Cactus & Succulent Society Show and Sale.

The cactus came labeled as Rebutia haugeana although a Google search produces no results. I don’t know exactly what it is, but it’s beautiful, and that’s all I care about.

120530_Rebuta-haugeana_11
 

From about 6 p.m. until 8 a.m. the flowers of this rebutia look like this:

120601_Rebuta-haugeana_07
From 6 p.m. until 8 a.m.

At 9 a.m. they slowly begin to open.

120531_Rebuta-haugeana_03
9 a.m. and 3 p.m.

At 10 a.m. they’re open half way.

120531_Rebuta-haugeana_01
10 a.m. and 4 p.m.

By noon, they’re open completely, and they stay that way until about 4 p.m.

120601_Rebuta-haugeana_02
From 12 p.m. until 4 p.m.
120530_Rebuta-haugeana_09
From 12 p.m. until 4 p.m.

After 4 p.m., the flowers slowly begin to close. By 6 p.m. they’re completely closed.

I did a little bit of research, and this is what I found out: If flowers are pollinated by insects active during the day (most flowers), the flowers are open during daylight hours. If they are pollinated by nocturnal insects (like the Queen of the Night cactus in this post), they are open at night.

So why don’t flowers stay open all the time? It is to save resources, especially pollen that might blow away or get wasted otherwise during times when pollinators are not active.

The opening and closing mechanism is triggered by changes in light or intensity or temperature. Cells in the flower expand or contract, causing the flowers to open or close. This behavior is called “nyctinasty.” What a great word to impress your friends with!

Curiously enough, many cactus flowers are wide open from about 12 a.m. to 4 p.m. and then start to close although at that time both the light intensity and the temperature are at their highest. I wasn’t able to find a convincing explanation, but most likely it is to prevent the loss of water from evaporation. This would make an interesting elementary or junior high school research project, and I’m going to suggest it to my younger daughter who will be participating in her school’s 6th grade science fair next year.

Comments

  1. Great information about flowering cactus! I didn't know this stuff! Awesome! And super pics!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I like the "provide shade protection for the plant" theory, but since they don't flower year-round that's probably not the case.

    Guess what? When somebody Googles "Rebutia haugeana" now, there's only one source for information: this blog. :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gotta check my Google stats periodically to see how many people are looking for Rebutia haugeana--or for nyctinasty. Can't wait for THAT word to come up on Jeopardy!

      Delete
  3. That'll be a great subject for time lapse photography/video :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. OK, gotta find out how to pronounce this word, cause right now I'm saying " nice n nasty"...lol

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The word sounds a bit like something you shouldn't say in polite company :-).

      Delete
  5. I find that my San Pedro flower will not reopen because it is indoors and I've been running the air conditioner. This Blossom came off of a cutting during drying for transplant. I did not expect it to open but it did. It open for one day I pollinated it with a paintbrush and it close that night to not reopen again. I'm not sure if after 24 hours of it not opening that sweating my ass off is going to help. I hope that it got pollination during the time that I had it open.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great information

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment