Christella dentata: born to survive

While it is extinguished in Spain, it invades new territories.

Christella dentata fern, also called Cyclosorus dentatus, Cyclosorus nymphalis and Thelypteris dentata, has an ample tropical and subtropical distribution, especially in Australia, New Zealand, Polynesia, sub-Saharian Africa, Madagascar, arriving in its more northern limit at the Macaronesia Islands (Azores, Canary Islands, Madeira, Cape Verde), south of the Iberian Peninsula, south of Italy and Crete.

The facility of its culture as garden plant has allowed it disperse its spores and become feral in new territories with a favorable climate, especially in America. In Hawaii it was introduced in 1887 and in few years become feral with as much success that now is one of the most abundant ferns in those islands. It hybridizes with relative facility with the endemic Christella cyatheoides, giving rise to a sterile triploid hybrid.

  Christella dentata growing in a humid and shady precipice in the North face of Monte Carneiro located in the Island of Faial of Azores Archipelago. In its around can be seen a carpet of leaves of the allochthonous American feral Tradescandia fluminensis.

In year 2002 it extinguished the unique well-known population of Christella dentata in the Iberian Peninsula, concretely in Los Alcornocales Natural Park of Cadiz, closely together of the Straits of Gibraltar. The technicians of the Council of Environment of Andalusia knew that the last well-known units were in very bad state, very debilitated, without hardly bringing forth new fronds and with the old fronds very aggravated. To the being a fern with rhizome crawling very resistant that sprouts again with facility after losing the fronds when the conditions of humidity and temperature return to be favorable, trusted that thus it happened, but that one year 2002 when they went to verify its state no longer they found no Christella dentata. Their fronds and rhizomes were had decomposed and had disappeared between the mulch leaves of the underbrush.

Christella dentata was originated like species in the Tertiary. Its maximum expansion took place when Europe enjoyed a warm and humid tropical climate ebullient forests. The later progressive cooling of the European climate went extinguishing to the Christella dentata of the north towards the south it forced and it to shut in the laurisilva forest of the province of Cadiz, resemblances to those of the Macaronesia, with a permanently humid subtropical climate.  

Years before already one had extinguished in Galicia the other well-known peninsular population of Christella dentata that grew next to thermal upwellings on granite walls in the province of Orense. The thermal hot water had allowed it to survive almost miraculously during million years, while to its around their same types disappeared thundered against by the cold and the drought. 

Therefore the Iberian Christella dentata no longer existed, had been extinguished irremediably. Nevertheless, after the initial deception, the Andalusian technicians reacted, they did not occur by won and they wanted to prove a last and desperate resource. In November of year 2002 they gathered the superficial substrate of the land where the last gaditana population had lived they took and it to the Laboratory of Vegetal Propagation of the Breeding ground of San Jeronimo, whose technicians, advised by scientists of the University of Valencia, seeded that one substrate in means and conditions of ideal temperature and humidity for the hypothetical germination of spores of Christella dentata that could have still viable.

The shrewdness of the Andalusian technicians bore its fruits and after two years, in September of year 2004, the longed for miracle took place. Tiny Christellas appeared between the maze of fungi, mosses, seaweed and other contained ferns arisen from the numerous ones and varied spores in the substrate. They were so small that they had to wait for seven months to that they grew to take samples of its fronds and to analyze them to confirm its identity.

Young Christella dentata cultivated in the Aljibe Botanical Garden located in Alcala de los Gazules in the province of Cadiz.

When they reached the maturity, the technicians cultivated its first spores and obtained numerous units, so that in April of year 2006 they could seed in its old habitat the ten first Christella dentata saved of the extinction. The repopulation was a full success. At the moment the seeded units add several dozens and to protect so appraised treasure the exact location stays privily. They are in a private property whose proprietor collaborates actively in its conservation.

Once assured a stable population in its natural means, the Andalusian Government came to still more send to several units of Christella dentata to all the botanical gardens of Andalusia, they cultivated so that them and they kept spores in their banks from germ plasm, thus guaranteeing its survival.

Tender frond of previous Christella dentata. Call the attention its intense clear green color that it is darker in the adult units. 

 In the low part of this image an adult Christella dentata is seen partially cover by an Athyrium filix-femina. The photo was taken in Monte Carneiro located in the Azorian Island of Faial. Next to both ferns an invading species can be seen, Hedychium gardnerianum, an original garden plant of the Himalayas that in the Azores has been feral with as much success that, like in New Zealand and Hawaii, has finished turned into an uncontrollable vegetal plague. 

Same previous Christella view of fence. In the frond can be seen the detail of the two basal pinnae whose apexes go upwards drawing a wide V, whereas the others pinnae are in a same horizontal plane. Also call the attention the acuminate or caudate end of the lamina, which is narrowed abruptly and finished in a length and pointed apex. Lateral pinnae also has the apex acuminate or caudate. Another showy detail is the so large central pinnae major with respect to the basal ones. In the fronds of the young units these details so are not defined.

Frond of a young Christella dentata of an alive green color clearly. Call the attention the gray rachis of the lamina that is green in the apex and is progressively darkening as it approaches the petiole, which is almost black. The two basal pinnae are seen smaller and arranged in the form of wide V. The fronds can surpass the 70 centimeters in length.

Rachis of almost black very dark gray color that is continued with the petiole of the same color. As the rest of the frond is covered with hairs or tricommas.

Linear-lanceolate and acuminate pinnae of Christella dentata. The margin is cleaved so that the divisions arrive in the middle of the limbo (pinnatifide) either deepen a little the more without arriving at rachis (pinnatipartite). The sights are had oblique on rachis pinna and have the cleared apex.

New frond of Christella dentata at the beginning of May.

Mature sori at the end of December.

Christella dentata sori are orbicular and are located on the nerves of the sights, equidistant of the margin and the average nerve. Indusium is reniform and is covered with rigid hairs. In the photo one does not see, because one has already risen to allow that the sporangia unfold and disperse spores.

Previous sori in which indusium is seen already dry and dissuaded and the showy sporangia like small black balls. The hairs or tricommas can be seen coverall on rachis of pinna and the nerves of pinnules. 

Microphotography of mature sori with the sporangia in the heat of dispersion of spores.

Sporangia of Christella dentata seen the microscope to 400 increases. The bag is transparent already still torn contains spores.

Another sporangium of Christella dentata with the transparent bag already completely torn and empty.

The hairs or tricommas that cover the lamina in all their surface can be short and long. In the photo a long tricomma seen the microscope to 400 increases. 

Short tricomma of Christella dentata with a spore.

Papillose spores of Christella dentata measured in microns.

Pteris incompleta: a spectacular fern

It is in extinction danger

I saw it for the first time in a very humid and shady precipice under the dense tops of a forest of laurisilva, located in the North skirt of Monte Carneiro of the small Azorian island of Faial. It was an old gigantic unit with long fronds of black petiole extended towards the little light that filtered between the leaves of the cover forest. The ambient was very humid, smelled of good earth and the ebullient vegetation transported me to last times, when the nature was still a paradise.

 

Magestic Pteris incompleta in Faial Island. Their fronds surpassed the 150 cms. of length. I recommend to extend the photos with a double click.

 Lowering by the footpath of the Vueltas de Taganana in the heat of Rural Park of Anaga located in the North end of Tenerife Island I found this beautiful Pteris incompleta full of life, appearing vigorously new fronds at the beginning of May. 

Pteris incompleta belongs to the Pteridaceae family and lives in all the Macaronesia (Canary, Azores and Madeira, except Cape Verde), in the north of Morocco (Tangiers) and in two localities of the Iberian Peninsula (Natural Park of Los Alcornocales in the Spanish province of Cadiz and Mountain range of Sintra in Portugal near Lisbon). It is a very little fern and is catalogued in danger of extinction in the Red List of the Spanish Vascular Flora.

Near image of the great fronds of previous Pteris incompleta. The apex of the lamina and pinnae are caudate or acuminate, that is to say, is extended and narrow in the form of tail. The lamina has pinnatisect pinnae in the apex, bipinnatisect in the average part and tripinnatisect in the base. Raquis is green. The petiole has a nice jet black color and is shorter than the lamina. 

In this image the black petioles of the fronds are seen well. This young Pteris incompleta was photographed in the Vulcao dos Capelinhos located in the North end of Faial Island in the Azores Archipelago, where the last volcanic eruption in Portuguese territory in 1957 took place.

Linear-lanceolate pinnae obliquely inserted in rachis of the lamina in alternate or subopposite form.

The pinnules are slightly falcate and no petiolulate and obliquely inserted with a large base on rachis of the pinna.

The sori are perhaps the prettiest and identifying part of Pteris incompleta. They are located in the edge of the pinnules, being greater the sorus of the basal margin. Its name "incompleta" it must to that, unlike the majority of Pteridaceae, the sori of Pteris incompleta do not occupy all the edge of the pinnule, but only between 1/5 and 2/3 of the same. Each sorus is covered by entire, scarious and persistent pseudoindusium of a target-grayish color. In the image the mature sporangia are seen showing below pseudoindusium after unfolding explosively to disperse spores. I recommend to extend the photo with a double click.

Sporangium of Pteris incompleta already unfolded after the dispersal of spores. The torn membrane of pocket where are formed the spores is seen. The spores have been fed by the ring of red fire cells that makes the function of placenta.

Spores of Pteris incompleta measured in microns. They are tetrahedral and muricate, that is to say, with the surface full of thorns or stings. 

Nephrolepis exaltata var. bostoniensis

A beautiful American invader

The Nephrolepis exaltata is one of the garden ferns more cultivated in all the Earth regions with subtropical, Mediterranean and temperate climates without frosts. Their natural habitat is the humid forests and the marshes. It has a great facility to the vegetative reproduction through the emission of exploratory roots, which confers it an invading character that gets to turn it into a true plague when the climate and the habitat are favorable. Like the Nephrolepis cordifolia belongs to the Oleandraceae family. 

Nephrolepis exaltata of the bostoniensis variety, called Wild Boston fern, Tuber ladder fern or Fishbone fern, cultivated in the terrace of a hotel of Funchal city in the Island of Madeira. Their long, wide and turgid fronds showy differentiate from the Nephrolepis cordifolia, whose fronds are narrower and smaller. Extending the photo with a double click can be seen like rhizome has emitted long exploratory roots, of which new ferns bring forth, identical clones of its mother.

Rooting bud of the previous Nephrolepis exaltata var. bostoniensis at the beginning of May. The exploratory roots are seen that they grow looking for new lands and they are emitting rooting buds. 

The same previous roots emitting new buds to more of a meter of distance of its mother.

New frond of one of the rooting buds of the previous image. As it happens with the new fronds of the majority of the ferns, the one of the image it follows the Mathematical Sequence of Fibonacci while it is unfolded. It calls attention its dense off-white hairiness.

The Nephrolepis exaltata is an original American fern of Florida, Mexico, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Brazil and French Guyana, although it has been feral and naturalized in other American countries with a warm climate without frosts, as well as in other many countries of Africa, Asia and Polynesia. In the Islands of the Macaronesia, especially in the Canary Islands, also it has been feral but it has still not become a worrisome plague. Through culture many varieties have been selected: Bostoniensis, Aurea, Chidsii, Elegantissima, Hillii, Mini Ruffle, Silver Balls, Green Fantasy, Montana, Teddy Junior, Todeoides, Whitmanii Improved, Rooseveltii, etc... The bostoniensis variety is the most commonly cultivated cultivar. This beautiful mutation was discovered in a shipment of Nephrolepis exaltata to Boston from Philadelphia in 1894.

Since I have already indicated at the beginning of this article, all the Nephrolepis has a strong invading tendency, as much through spores as through rooting buds. In the image the trunk of a canary palm is seen, Phoenix canariensis, place setting of rooting buds of Nephrolepis exaltata, arisen all from a unique unit born from a feral spore coming from a near garden, growing like epiphyte between the dried remains of the leaves of the palm. All the rooting buds are united by their roots, being in fact a single individual. The image was taken in a public garden from Orotava city in Tenerife Island.

New frond of Nephrolepis exaltata var. bostoniensis. It calls the attention the great width of its lamina. This detail difference it of the common variety of Nephrolepis exaltata, as it can be seen in the image of the previous epiphyte fern, of narrower and less vigorous fronds something. In the Nephrolepis cordifolia the fronds are even more narrower and shorter.

Frond already completely developed of Nephrolepis exaltata var. bostoniensis. It calls the attention the rachis of a shining brown mahogany color and the long pinnae with crenate edge. The fronds of this cultivar can measure between 50 and 250 centimeters in length and up to 16 centimeters in width.

Giving the return to the previous frond the gorgeous mature cleared sori filled with spores are seen, emplaced in two rows following the edge of each pinna. Pinnae have a short petiole and they are emplaced in alternating form on rachis. In its base they have two cleared auricles that do not get to embrace to rachis. This last detail difference it clearly of the Nephrolepis cordifolia, whose pinnae lack petiole and have two auricles that they embrace to rachis.

 Detail of the basal auricles of pinnae of Nephrolepis cordifolia, that they embrace to rachis and they lack petiole. This so showy difference serves to identify correctly the two more cultivated Nephrolepis in the World. 

Mature sori just before initiating the dispersion of spores. Each sorus is covered by a reniform or cleared-reniform indusium attached to the pinna on its central part as an umbrella that opens towards out allowing that the sporangia unfold and disperse spores. This kidney-shaped indusium gives the name to the sort: the Greek word Nephro means kidney and the Lepis word grudge, that is to say, grudge in the form of kidney, by the reniform form of indusium that covers the sporangia. 

Close-up image of the sori of Nephrolepis exaltata var. bostoniensis with the detail of reniform or cleared-reniform indusium as a umbrella that covers each sorus and it opens towards out. Extending the image with a double click the brown sporangia are seen very well that unfold explosively and disperse spores more far possible of their mother. On pinna are tiny brown small points that they are spores just dispersed.

Gorgeous sporangium of Nephrolepis exaltata var. bostoniensis with short sporangiophore in its inferior part that is stuck to the inferior surface of pinna and receives from it the water and the nutrients to feed spores in formation, which grow within the transparent bag embraced by the ring of cells that have a similar function to the placenta from the uterus of mammals.

Spores of Nephrolepis exaltata var. bostoniensis. Its small size inferior to 39 microns indicates that it is a diploid fern.

Geranium maderense: its beauty captivate the gardeners

Its life is short, between two and four years, but after its death it leaves thousands of seeds that germinate around the corpse of their mother and fill of color and life the underbrushes partially shaded that are their favourite habitat. The Geranium maderense, that as its name indicates is endemic to Madeira Island, has captivated to the fans to the gardening of all the regions of the World with a similar climate to the humid original one, that is to say, subtropical and Mediterranean without frosts.

 Flowers and fruits of Geranium maderense cultivated in the Funchal Botanical Garden of Madeira.

In the coastal zones of California it is feral and covers great surfaces with a spectacular flowering. So it is adapted to live on trash of the underbrushes that even colonizes the acid and toxic ground of the great plantations of eucalyptus, where very few plants are able to survive the toxicity of oils and essences of their leaves in decomposition.

 Magnificent unit of Geranium maderense of almost two meters of height growing in the semishade of several palms in the Funchal Botanical Garden. I recommend to extend the photos with a double click.

In wild state it is a relatively little plant. In my trip to Madeira I was not able to see it growing in its natural habitat, only in the Funchal Botanical Garden and some particular garden. I have also seen it in the Faial Botanical Garden of the Azores Archipelago, in the Botanical Garden of La Orotava in Tenerife, in the Lisbon Botanical Garden and in the Soller Botanical Garden in Majorca, where they cultivate by far success in the underbrush of a small copse of Macaronesian Laurisilva. Ever since they seeded the first unit more ago than 10 years it has been reproduced by itself through its own seeds as the least units died. 

Group of Geranium maderense in the heat of flowering in the middle of May. Their luminous flowers fill of color the underbrush of palms and trees of Laurisilva in the Funchal botanical Garden.

Leaves of a young unit of Geranium maderense cultivated in the Soller Botanical Garden.

 

Luminous flower of Geranium maderense with an immature fruit to its side, photographed in the Lisbon Botanical Garden at the beginning of May. 

Its success is so great that it is sold in multitude of breeding grounds of gardening worldwide and their seeds can be bought easily by Internet with Visa without needing leaving house. Already they are even commercialized some mutant varieties with garnet and white flowers.  

Another flower of Geranium maderense. Extending the photo the detail of the abundant glandulous hairiness can be appreciated that covers the stems with this Geraniaceae. 

Within years it is possible that they will be obtained mutant varieties resistant to the cold that can survive the frosts and that will be able to exceed the maximum limit of four years of life and they even become perennial. How more it is cultivated a plant, more possibilities there are that they are isolate new varieties with interesting mutations. The time will tell it. 

At the moment this Macaronesian plant has captivated the gardeners by its beauty and from its tiny Atlantic island it has been able to extend its population of an exponential way to practically all the regions with mediterranean and subtropical climate of the Earth. Many plants like this geranium that in their region of origin are little or even are in extinction danger when they are cultivated are a spectacular successful. 

They worship the Sun God

They know that it gives life

Every morning they wait anxious the dawn, hungry of light. Like satellite dishes especially designed to catch the maximum of solar rays, the plants direct their the leaves and flowers towards their God sun, the one that gives the life them and they follow to him in his movement until the dusk, always watching it of face.

 Perhaps the best example would be a field of sunflowers. The beauty of these plants in the heat of flowering is extraordinary. All the flowers watch at their God with veneration, humility, with respect, slightly inclined, but without losing it of view a little while nor. Their stems twist to follow it since it is shown in the horizon by the east, until it is also put in the horizon by the west. The leaves are prepared in a plane slightly inclined of north to the south and turn to the same rate that the flowers, so that they are able to catch solar rays with an efficiency impossible to surpass. 

You will ask yourselves why the flowers have as much avidity by the sun if they do not realise the photosynthesis. You have the answer in this inflorescence of sunflower. At the left is the reason for its exaggerated heliophilia, a pollenizer bee sucking the nectar of the just open flowers and pollinating them with the pollen stuck in its body coming from other flowers. The bees and the other insects that feed themselves on nectar have a very special vision, are able to see the colors, but in a chromatic phantom different from ours. They can perceive with clarity the ultraviolet colors, invisible to our eyes. The plants know it and they direct the flowers towards the light of the sun so that the insects can see them with clearness. Many of them have special marks in their petals, that we cannot see, to indicate to the pollenizers the exact place to them where it is the nectar. (I recommend to extend the photos with a double click).

The flowers of the Merendera filifolia take the form of small satellite dishes oriented towards the sun. Unlike us the bees do not see their gorgeous pink color, but an ultraviolet color that is clarified from the end of the petals towards the center of the flower, where they are stamens and pistil with the nectar like reclamation or reward.

 The endemic violet to Corsica, Viola corsica, has flowers with a very intelligent design whose purpose is not indeed the aesthetic one, but to attract the insects towards the center of the flower. For it has drawn lines that direct to the pollenizers towards the nectar. The insects specialized in pollinate the Viola corsica know to recognize of an instinctive way these lines and these gradients of color. They take engraving to it in its genome. It is a perfect symbiosis, nectar in exchange for pollen.

This Crocus cambessedesii, endemic to the Balearic Islands, grows in the crack of a calcareous rock oriented towards the west closely of the sea. In order to obtain that the insects see its unique flower it has had to spend much energy to draw for the rock that covers solar rays and instead of to grow turgid upwards it has been forced to downwards grow and later to rotate towards the southwest to manage that the last solar rays of the dusk illuminate their petals, being thus obtained to be seen by the insects.

I never had seen a Fuchsia growing wild, always in flowerpot. Three years ago I enjoyed an unforgettable spectacle. It found me in the Island of Faial of the Azores Archipelago. One hour ago little that had left the sun and the plants they were covered by the dew of the horizontal rain that had been condensed on its leaves during the dawn. The drops of water shone as small diamonds illuminated by rays of the dawn. I was in the skirt of Monte Carneiro looking for the mythical endemic fern Asplenium azoricum. I was scanning with the view rocks oriented towards the north that bordered a way. Magician was a silence almost and suddenly I listened far the motor of a car that approached and gave average return to see it. Before my eyes, on the wall across of the way, it appeared a gorgeous spectacle. Highest fuchsias with their branches loaded of flowers and oriented towards the sun of the dawn shone by the drops of the dew and they stood out on the farming fields. Nor in the most taken care gardens I could have seen so beautiful fuchsias. I knew immediately that one was the feral Fuchsia magellanica from South America, that in the Azores lives very happy and gets to reach near two meters of height. 

It is not necessary to ask which is its God, truth?. This Tragopogon prorrifolius subsp. australis grows on the volcanic gravel of the Port of Izaña in the Island of Tenerife to 2300 msnm. This flower seen close by has a design of a great chromatic beauty and a so sophisticated structure that it seems to be designed specifically to please to the God that gives the life it.

The white poppy of California, of scientific name Romneya coulteri, is another worshipper of the sun. Its pearl-shaped whiteness has a purity that it impresses. Of what color they will see the bees it?

This tiny labiatae of crawling habit, Teucrium chamaedrys subsp. pinnatifidum, directs its gorgeous flowers towards the sun of the noon. It grows in a heather bush located in the skirt of a mountain of the Serra de Tramuntana of Majorca.

In the same heather bush can see some examples of albino flowers, always aimed toward the sunlight.

The flowers of the rockrose of laudanum, Cistus ladanifer, have a peculiar very dark red spot in the petals, which dye of yellow between the spot and the center of the flower to direct to the pollenizers towards their showy reproductive organs. So that the insects can see these spots the flower must be oriented towards the light. The beauty of its design is insurmountable.

The flowers of guava of Brazil, Feijoa sellowiana, upwards have stamens of an alive red color blood and pink petals with the edge revolute letting see their white inferior part. When it leaves the sun these flowers are an irresistible reclamation for the bees.

The flowers of Malfurada, Hypericum grandifolium, a Macaronesian endemism, have an alive golden color that stands out on the intense green of the leaves. The plant of the photo in the heat of grows in the forest of laurisilva of the Sendero largo del Pijaral in Rural Park of Anaga in Tenerife Island. The numerous yellow flowers seem small stars shining in the firmament.

 Impressive general view of the extraordinary Botanical Garden of Funchal of Madeira Island. Intelligently it is located in the skirt of a volcanic mountain oriented towards the south. This way the plants receive all the sun of the noon, which, along with the high humidity of this island, is the respondible of the exuberance of the vegetation of the garden. In first plane the gorgeous flower of a Strelitzia reginae can be seen with its peculiar design in rooster crest. Extending the image it is appraised as the majority of plants is slightly inclined towards the sun, detail that is appraised better in the palm of the bottom.

The ferns do not have flowers, but some also present showy heliophilia, like this vigorous allotetraploid hybrid endemic to Majorca, Asplenium X tubalense. In order to catch the maximum of solar energy it extends its long fronds towards the light.

Also the arboreal ferns adore to the God sun. In the image we see several feral Cyathea cooperi in clear of a forest of cryptomerias of the Caldeira do Faial that is an enormous volcanic crater located in center of the Azorian island of the same name. Its design in the form of satellite dish allows them to catch the maximum of solar rays.

Some plants depend as much on ultraviolet rays that they only open the flowers if shines the sun. The cloudy days maintain closed the petals and if it persists bad weather they patiently hope during days to that it improves. They know that without ultraviolet rays of the sun affecting the petals of their flowers their pollenizers will not see them. These plants also usually close the flowers at night and they open them again in the morning. It is a very intelligent way to assure the pollination, since their pollenizers are diurnal and it does not have any sense to maintain the flowers open during the night.

 The Gazania splendens is a clear example. Every morning it open its flowers watching at the sun with its special drawings in the petals to say to the bees where they can find some sips of rich nectar. We see them with their gorgeous color fire, but the bees are blind for the red color and they see them in different ultraviolet tonalities. To the dusk their petals are closed and they become open with first rays of the dawn. It knows that at night their pollenizers will not see their flowers and in addition it is very sensible to the cold, closing its petals protects the reproductive organs of a possible nocturnal frost. 

The tiny Romulea assumptionis, endemic to the Balearic Islands, is another extreme example of heliophilia. The pollination of its unique flower depends as much on the diurnal insects that it only open the petals if their sensors of light detect sufficient ultraviolet rays incising over it. Throughout the year is accumulating nutrients and energy in its small underground bulb with the unique purpose of producing a single flower and of assuring therefore the survival the species. It cannot squander energy uselessly nor it can put in danger to his descendants. Usually it grows in the clear ones of Mediterranean Garriga with its small flower oriented towards the noon. If near it some pines, olive trees or oaks grow doing shade to it during the morning, its flower patiently hopes solar rays of the noon for open its petals. The cloudy days its flower remains closed until it improves the time. If it is able to be fertilized the first day, in the evening it is closed and no longer it returns open. On the contrary one it open several followed days until securing its objective.

These two gorgeous flowers of Trichocereus terscheskii intelligently are located on the stem to receive the maximum of direct solar light during the central hours of the day, that is to say, are directed towards south-east, South, the southwestern one. In the image we see several bees flying towards the central zone of the flowers, where are at heart the reproductive organs of the flower with the nectar. The flowers of this cactus dismiss a delicious aroma that it attracts the bees that look for with the view the source of the scent. They are open in the morning and they are closed to the dusk during several followed days. The nocturne cold of the desert where they grow could damage its delicate reproductive organs and it would not serve for anything all the effort as the plant to assure the following generation.

The strategies of the plants to survive and to perpetuate their species are infinite. Today I have spoken you about the worshippers of the God Sun, but there are also worshippers to the goddess Moon. Their flowers open when putting the sun and they are closed with first rays of the dawn. Of them  I will speak you in another article.