One last flower, a Moon Flower.

[alfredo]

This was my last picture of the evening. The sun was going fast.

[superconnected]

1. why is it called a moon flower?

Is that it's real name?

It looks cool. It also looks like a Lilly to me.

[alfredo]

2. They are called moon flowers because they bloom in the evening.

They're pretty neat flowers.

[superconnected]

4. show what I know

nothing. I had no idea any flower bloomed at night. That's way cool. Of course I wonder why it blooms at night now. I think I'll have to look this one up.

[bettyellen]

5. because bees don't pollinate it, moths do, at night.

thia page- if it loads, has great pictures showing how it opens at dusk:


http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http://members.tripod.com/mert_rountree/id1.html&h=540&w=720&sz=91&tbnid=nbhnUnnkv3UJ:&tbnh=104&tbnw=139&hl=en&start=11&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmoonflower%2Bvine%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26sa%3DN

[bettyellen]

3. hey that's beautiful....

but gosh it's different than the moonflowers i know. they are HUGE and white and shaped like mornig glories, but open at dusk. and they are vines.
i think these things in the pic have spikey seed pods, right? is it also called datura?

[alfredo]

6. Same thing. Datura is a drug. Not a good drug

http://www.erowid.org/plants/datura/datura.shtml

[bullimiami]

7. thats not datura and I never heard it called a moonflower

its a type of angels trumpet. they are related to datura but not the same as. they are still poisonous.

they are brugmansia.
they dont bloom at night either. the flowers last a few days.

[alfredo]

8. Most likely it is a local name for the flower.

Here's a movie of a moon flower opening. It looks like a mixture of a hibiscus and morining glory.

http://sunflower.bio.indiana.edu/~rhangart/plantmotion/flowers/moonflower/moon.html

Datura



Below, a Datura at night This is definitely what the local old folks call a moon flower. So they have misnamed a Datura as a moon flower.

http://tinyurl.com/df32j

The Angel's Trumpet is a type of Datura

http://www.chw.edu.au/parents/factsheets/poisonous_plants.htm



http://www.americanbrugmansia-daturasociety.org/

[superconnected]

9. thanks!

"Moon flowers open in the evening so they can be pollinated by night-flying moths. Like most moth-pollinated flowers, the moon flower is white, which attracts moths. The moon flower is a close relative of the morning glory, which opens in the morning so it can be pollinated by bees and other insects that are active during the day. Although not shown in this movie, the moon flower petals die in the morning after they open. "

[alfredo]

10. Where are they local to?