The Entanglement between Popular Science Flowers and Plants and Time

The flowering and closing time of many plants is very regular, which seems to tell people that the day has passed. The elegant dandelion blooms at about 5 o'clock in the morning, which has been called "shepherd clock" for centuries, and the star of Bethlehem blooms at about 11 o'clock, winning the reputation of "11 o'clock princess"; The flowering time of Brahmin ginseng on the grassland is 4 o'clock in the morning and will be closed at noon, which is called "John's lunch break". At dusk, night grass and Amazon Wang Lian will gradually open; The moon will bloom quietly at 1 pm, and the cactus in Ye Xiang will not bloom until midnight.

Throughout the ages, people seem to use flowers to show the passage of time, and the most famous "flower clock" is believed to be built by Swedish botanist Linnaeus. According to the observation of many plants for a long time, in 1751, Linnaeus recorded many phenological observations in his book Philosophy of Plants: "All kinds of Fei Lian don't bloom even after noon." "Plum blossom means drought." "Colchicine blossoms mean autumn frost."

Later, Linnaeus was not satisfied with this result. He wanted to find some rules from these things. Through long-term observation and research, he found that all kinds of plants have a certain time to bloom, and they are controlled by biological clocks. The biological clocks of plants can control the biochemical activities such as flower opening, fragrance and nectar production, sap secretion of roots and dormancy of leaves. Flowers that bloom in sequence are just to attract pollinators who are active at different times, for example, plants that bloom during the day attract bees. Butterflies and birds; Plants that bloom at night attract moths and bats. After careful observation of more than 4 kinds of flowers and plants, Linnaeus classified them into three categories:

1. Daylight flowers, the time of flower opening will be affected by the weather, and shade, humidity and low air pressure may make the time quite inaccurate;

2, a tropical flower, has a fixed opening time every day, and the closing time is basically fixed.

3, equatorial flowers, have a fixed opening time every day, and the closing time is basically fixed.

Therefore, it is said that Linnai selected plants that "open for a fixed time every day" and pieced together a "flower clock". The specific arrangement is as follows:

Although it is a beautiful story, it is only the wishful thinking of future generations. Scholars who have studied Linnai's life have found that Linnai, as a great botanist, did put forward the idea of the law of plant flowering, but did not actually decorate the "flower clock". Later generations think that the reason why Linnaeus was involved with "Flower Clock" is that after Linnaeus's death, his descendants dug up the old bill of the flowering law of plants in the name of Linnaeus in order to publish articles. Moreover, although the "flower clock" is very interesting, there may be errors in the "report" time. Because in addition to a certain time, plants are also affected by various conditions such as region, temperature difference and climate. For example, the same flower blooms earlier in the south of China, but it will be a little later in the north.

At present, researchers are still making great efforts to study the relationship between flowers, plants and time. It can be confirmed that the three major groups proposed by Linnaeus are not so commensurate with the current achievements. Choosing plants that bloom at different times to build a "flower clock", although it can be operated by hand, can not guarantee its accuracy. However, if it's fun to grow flowers in the courtyard or at home, the "flower clock" is a good choice. If this is the time criterion, it is estimated that it is unlikely to catch a plane and a train with a "flower clock".

The article comes from "Time Reveals" edited by Qi Haoran

The above pictures are all from the Internet, and they are deleted

-END-