Cactus Flower Experiments

[@rinaldyfaustino643]

Many thanks Dave for this experiment of yours. Looking forward for more! Im really glad i stumbled upon this.

[@mollycher3630]

Beautiful cactus with beautiful flowers and you took all that trouble to test out your theories. I really love your stunning cactus. Just lovely!!

[@davefoc]

Hi Molly, thanks for your very nice and very appreciated comment. This video didn't seem to attract much attention and I appreciated that you liked it. The cactus in the video has been in bloom continuously for the last 3 months or so, opening and closing every day. On the opposite end of the spectrum we have a couple of cactus that I think might be in the Echinopsis genus. They bloom one day and they are done. This year they both bloomed on the same day which I thought was interesting: goo.gl/photos/7avziTCgsfYpcM779

[@davefoc]

This is a video I made of the one with pink flowers opening. I didn't make it public but you can see it with this link: kzbin.info/www/bejne/kHi0h4anbr1jmaM I was hoping to do a better job but I procrastinated and with flowers that open and close all on one day procrastination doesn't work out.

[@mollycher3630]

Dave Kirkeby - Well, you never know. Sometimes videos from KZbin gets shown in Cactus and Succulents Society meeting from around the globe for better understanding among their members so who knows, yours might get shown if they are aware about it and also if the content is related to what the society wants. Fingers crossed for you!!

[@au2611]

How do they know it's time to close?

[@davefoc]

Hi Aurojeet Misra, It seems like the opening and closing of the flowers is controlled completely by light. When the light dims they close, Your question made me wonder if all the opening and closing of all the flowers that open and close daily is controlled by light. The yellow oxalis in our yard open and close daily. My guess is that the oxalis flowers could be forced to open and close more than once a day in the same way the cactus flowers were in this experiment.

[@au2611]

I wonder if this is true because my Mammilaria beneckei ‘s flower closes when it’s noon and blooms in the early hours when there is just enough sunlight, I shall experiment if the flower stays open with a constant amount of light

[@davefoc]

@@au2611 That is interesting. I was thinking that there might be some general rule that covered all flowers that open and close daily. It sounds like that might not be true. I know that with the cactus I did the experiment on it was light and it seemed to be light alone. I wanted to extend this video to provide information about the the opening and closing mechanism. I didn't find a source for that that I understood well enough to add that information to the video.

[@au2611]

Dave Kirkeby Sure it is interesting. It's way more complex than we expect it to be so yeah