#crocus vernus

[samirafee]

#TINY CHARM💜💙💜

@samirafee

[timeless-takes]

Early Cheerleaders

Photo credit: Jonathan Chua.

Crocuses adding cheer in late winter.

Camera was lowered to the ground for this shot.

[plantpest]

okay, it's spring now☀️

[kawasemi-automatic]

[faguscarolinensis]

Crocus vernus / Spring Crocus at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens at Duke University in Durham, NC

[lizinski]

[floralfumofridays]

Floral Fumo Fridays of the Week (SPRING!!): Vernal Crocus (Crocus vernus)

Yuuka found herself back in Mayohiga but saw the vampire and Yukari together. Yukari said that the flowers were fragrant to many, but to a vampire they were foul and had weakened them. And while it was cloudy everywhere else, it was sunny here: a vampire's signature weakness. Battles can no longer be fought.

Both Yuuka and the vampire objected to this rule, but nonetheless followed it. What is a youkai who can't battle?

This is Vernal Crocus(Crocus vernus) of the Iris family (Iridaceae). It is a very common garden/house flower that normally blooms between the end of winter and the beginning of spring. Usually, this flower comes in shades of yellow, purple, white and a very light lavender with purple stripes. I found all of the possible colors of this crocus flower except yellow.

They are native to Southern and Eastern Europe, but they are mostly found (and thrive!) on mountain ranges such as their native areas of the Alps or the Balkans. These flowers usually grow around 15 centimeters tall. At the bottom of these flowers underground lies a structure that is similar to a bulb, but much different called a corm. These flowers also only bloom for a short while, but afterwards they just start looking like normal grass throughout the year. They are noted for their small but showy appearance. These ones are not the type of crocus that grows saffron which are a deeper scarlet color of the stigma and bloom in the fall, those are autumn crocus, or Crocus sativus.

The name of the flower Crocus is pretty self-explanatory and has been used to describe this flower and Crocus sativus since ancient times, so it is both the common name and also the name of the genus. Vernus comes from vernal which means spring, since this crocus blooms at the beginning of spring. The family name Iridaceae comes from Iris flowers, and those have their namesake with the god of rainbows: Iris. The namesake of the family name is because many flowers in this plant family have vibrant and a large variety of colors.

Spring is here! And that means that there will be many flowers blooming! I love to take pictures of my Yukari fumo with croci, because I think it suits her the most. Crocus is a flower that blooms between the end of winter and the beginning of spring, so it blooms on the boundaries between seasons! Crocus is also part of the Iris family, which is a family of flowers with vibrant colors, and most of the Yakumo family's names are based on colors (incl. Chen). I only got the Yuuka fumo during the fall, and fall and winter are pretty challenging when finding the more popular Angiosperms. Also, for the last post, you can see some pictures of Mystery A on here next to the purple ones. That one will bloom pretty soon and we will know what those flowers are, but growing flowers does take lots of patience and time.

BONUS: On a sunny day, croci have their petals spread out and they look pretty normal. However...

This strange phenomenon is called Nyctinasty! Whenever it becomes dark, either by heavy clouds or by nighttime, certain plants close their petals and leaves. It has been studied by Linnaeus and Darwin, too. Today, nyctinasty is still a mysterious phenomenon, and we don't exactly know why certain plants do this. Maybe some day, we will know the secrets about nyctinasty.

Plant nyctinasty – who will decode the ‘Rosetta Stone’? by Ueda, Ishimaru, et al.,

The functions of foliar nyctinasty: a review and hypothesis by Minorsky

[raccaryusui]

近所の駐車場脇で

鉢植えの中で咲いていた、

「クロッカス」の美しい花。

サフラン属。

別名：ハナサフラン(花サフラン)、

　　　ハルサフラン(春サフラン)。

欧文名：Crocus vernus