And one of my favorite plants, which is the sensitive plant (Mimosa pudica). If you touch it, the leaves curl up. Which is fun to do, even if it does make me feel like I am torturing a kitten or something.
The Arizona Queen of the Night is a night-blooming cactus that looks exactly like a pile of dead sticks for most of the year. (good picture of it here: http://www.cas.vanderbilt.edu/bioimages/species/pegr3.htm)
In midsummer it produces huge white flowers, usually around 6-8 inches in diameter, that have an incredible scent somewhat similar to vanilla. However, they last only for the one night they bloom.
The roots consist of a giant tuber that can weigh up to 80 pounds, which is pretty amazing considering how unassuming the plant looks.
The scarlet gilia, a common wildflower in the west, normally produces bright red flowers (hence the name). However, scientists at the Hart Prairie nature preserve near Flagstaff noticed that the flowers there ranged from red to pink to white.
Normally the gilia is pollinated by hummingbirds, which are attracted to the red color. However, at Hart Prairie, hummingbirds migrate south midway through the gilia's blooming season. So the flowers there have adapted to bloom red early in the season, when hummingbirds are abundant, and then bloom pink or white later in the season, in order to attract moths (which prefer lighter-colored flowers because they are easier to see at night).
Old creosote bushes split into two cloned bushes that grow on either sides of the original plant. Eventually this forms a large ring (or, more rarely, a line) of bushes connected by the roots.
There's a relatively famous example of the ring formation in the Mojave Desert (it's usually called 'King Clone') which is almost 12,000 years old.
Got to 50 several times as well. It was fun, but I have to wonder how the donation thing works-- I certainly hope some poor aid organization isn't having to count out individual grains of rice.
In midsummer it produces huge white flowers, usually around 6-8 inches in diameter, that have an incredible scent somewhat similar to vanilla. However, they last only for the one night they bloom.
The roots consist of a giant tuber that can weigh up to 80 pounds, which is pretty amazing considering how unassuming the plant looks.
The scarlet gilia, a common wildflower in the west, normally produces bright red flowers (hence the name). However, scientists at the Hart Prairie nature preserve near Flagstaff noticed that the flowers there ranged from red to pink to white.
Normally the gilia is pollinated by hummingbirds, which are attracted to the red color. However, at Hart Prairie, hummingbirds migrate south midway through the gilia's blooming season. So the flowers there have adapted to bloom red early in the season, when hummingbirds are abundant, and then bloom pink or white later in the season, in order to attract moths (which prefer lighter-colored flowers because they are easier to see at night).
Kind of a neat example of adaptation!
There's a relatively famous example of the ring formation in the Mojave Desert (it's usually called 'King Clone') which is almost 12,000 years old.