Yikes, what a weird looking flower. It is past its prime with its petals rolling up and its pollen blown out. Where did you photograph it? What kind of habitat? How tall was it? And, what was the width of the flower, 1/2 inch, 1 inch?
Given that it has six petals, it is a monocot, and probably in the lily or iris family. The above questions would help in the i.d.
Middle Fork Barrens(eastern Ouachitas)- they were scattered, maybe 15-20 of them, same areas the Western Daisy and widow crosses grow, about 12 inches tall. Also they were shriveling right in front of me. I started shooting them and 10 minutes later they were almost all shriveled up. That was in the evening just after the sunlight was shaded from them.
Okay, I had to think about it for awhile since I haven't seen this one in over 15 years! It is not a very common plant, Nuttall's celestial lily, Nemastylis nuttallii. It is in the iris family. It flowers for only a few hours in the late afternoon and that's it!
Great catch Tim, considering the short lifespan. It would be a treat to watch a lifecycle that spanned only a few hours. BTW, nice job on the shot, good stuff!
Posted by Tim Buchanan on May 20, 2007 at 10:08 PM
Pretty cool flower, Tim - talk about being in the right place at the right time!
Wow thats pretty cool Don, thanks for the help. For a while when I saw a new flower come up I would be super careful with them and shoot less than perfect ones. Then a few days later there would be 100,000 more of them. I went back earlier in the day a few days later and there were NONE. urrggg
Discussion
6 repliesYikes, what a weird looking flower. It is past its prime with its petals rolling up and its pollen blown out. Where did you photograph it? What kind of habitat? How tall was it? And, what was the width of the flower, 1/2 inch, 1 inch?
Given that it has six petals, it is a monocot, and probably in the lily or iris family. The above questions would help in the i.d.
Best,
Don