Photos and text copyright Romping and Rolling in the Rockies 2009-2017.

All photographs and text within this blog are copyrighted.

You may not copy or repost any photos or text without specific permission from the author of this blog. When in doubt, please ask.

Friday, June 3, 2016

Nighttime in the Desert

We saw some intriguing and beautiful flowers in the Utah desert. It was a wetter spring than most recent years so the colors were incredible, like in this cactus bloom!

The intriguing flowers were part of the "Four O'Clock Family", which includes flowers that close during the day to preserve moisture and open at night. Here was one example. It looked like a cluster of little white balls during the day.

As the sun was setting...

... and I was taking sunset photos of Shyla...

 ... the little balls were opening up so that they could be pollinated by Sphinx Moths. The blossoms were gorgeous, especially with the dark background. It was hard to believe that this was the same plant as I'd seen during the day!

Another flower in that family was called the "Showy Four O'Clock Flower". It was closed during the heat of the day. This photo was just as it was closing in the morning.

Then, around sunset, the "showy" blossoms opened in all their glory!

It's a flower that needs lots of rain to flourish so we haven't seen it in recent years.

So, on those moonlit nights when the stars spun around the North Star, flowers were blooming under the incredible desert sky.
I found the Four O'Clock flowers to be gloriously beautiful and fascinating!!! What a cool trick for surviving in the dry and hot climate of the desert!



Today, I am joining Dory's Flower Blog Hop!

12 comments:

  1. Amazing!!! And those little white flowers are so dainty and pretty.

    Beautiful Shyla - she looks majestic.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You really have a way of capturing the most beautiful details and moments in your photos that so many would and do miss. It truly shows your talent!



    By the way, I really, really LOVED the bear post on Weds - How exciting and what great and fun photos!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. When I was a child I saw Disney's The Living Desert. I was totally blown away by the beauty of the blooming flowers. I can only imagine how wonderful it must be to seem them in person. Great photographs.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Beautiful flowers. The flowers are amazing this year. We saw more flowers between Arizona and Utah last week than I have ever seen.

    ReplyDelete
  5. OMD, those flowers are just beautifuls!!!! Amazin' how some of the most beautiful flowers open at night. And you are lookin' most beautiful too Shyla!!!
    Kisses,
    Ruby ♥

    ReplyDelete
  6. Beautiful! We find it amazing that cactus have such pretty flowers! Our mom said not to sniff them though cuz they might bite the tips of our noses.

    Your Pals,

    Murphy & Stanley

    ReplyDelete
  7. Gorgeous flowers! I was rarely in the desert late enough in the day to see them open up when I lived out west, so I'm glad you shared these pictures.

    ReplyDelete

If you are a Blogger registered user, you can skip the step asking you to verify that you are not a spammer. For posts older than 5 days, I have comment moderation turned on.

Thanks for your comments!!!!!