Taylor DiFilippo |
Summer is known for its fields of wildflowers and flowering trees. All colors of pedals spread toward the sky. We have taken for granted that flowers bloom during the day, just like how summer is warm and grass grows. However, there are some flowers that defy the norm and do not go with the flow of following daylight hours. These flowers actually have a good reason for their particularly weird flower habits.
The main purpose of flower blossoms is for the plant to spread their seeds. The flower attracts bees, the bees fly to another flower, and voila, the flower has spread its seeds. However, bees are not the only pollinators, even if they are the most famous. According to ThoughtCo.com’s “7 Insect Pollinators that Arent Bees or Butterflies”, moths, mosquitos, beetles, and even ants share the credit for helping flowers flourish.
Most pollinators roam only in daylight, leading most flowers to open up when the sun is out to fit their pollinators’ schedule. But not all pollinators like to be out and about when it’s light out.
According to ASU School of Life Sciences, “What are ‘moon flowers’ and why do they bloom only at night? “, pollinators like moths only roam at night, and the flowers they pollinate have to adjust their schedule. This also is why night-blooming flowers are normally on the lighter color scheme. It so that they can better attract moths to pollinate them.
According to Ten Lovely Flowers That Only Bloom At Night, some examples of night-blooming flowers are the evening primroses, the night bloom water lilies, the special category of moonflowers (for example, the Ipomoeas), the night gladiolus, the Casablanca lily, and the dragon fruit flowers.
If you are lucky enough to see one of these abnormal flowers at night, like the ones mentioned above, now you know why their habits are so different from the other flowers in the flower world. Maybe you will get to see one bloom.