#flowering plants

[dougdimmadodo]

Ghost Plant (Monotropa uniflora)

Family: Heath Family (Ericaceae)

IUCN Conservation Status: Unassessed

Over 80% of plants form mutualistic relationships with soil-dwelling fungi, linking their roots to the fungus' hyphae and providing photosynthetically produced sugars in exchange for hard-to-access nutrients that the fungus takes in from the soil. The Ghost Plant, which is found mainly in temperate shady forests across much of Asia and the Americas, also connects its roots with the hyphae of fungi (specifically members of the family Russulaceae,) but contributes nothing; it is a parasite, stealing nutrients not only from its host fungus but also from other plants (particularly birches) that its host is also connected to. Living entirely on stolen nutrients means that Ghost Plants have no need to carry out photosynthesis, and as such they lack the green pigment chlorophyll that almost all plants use to absorb sunlight, giving them their namesake eerie white appearance (although on occasion pale pink individuals are recorded) and allowing them to survive in dark, shady conditions that other plants are unable to colonise. Ghost Plants bloom rarely and unpredictably (as they do not photosynthesise they have no need for aboveground leaves or stems when not reproducing, but apparently develop stems and flowers rapidly during periods of wet weather following prolonged dry conditions,) baring a single bell-shaped white flower with a black-and-yellow interior that attracts various species of bees and flies. Following pollination the plant's tiny seeds are forced through gaps in its petals and carried away on the wind, remaining dormant in the soil they settle on until they detect a suitable host fungus growing nearby.

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Image Source: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/49477-Monotropa-uniflora

#Happy Halloween! #Ghost Plant #ghost plant #botany #biology #plant #plants #wildlife #Asian Wildlife #North American Wildlife #parasitic plants #parasitic plant #angiosperms #flowering plants

[los-plantalones]

i’m in big love

#plants #flowers #succulents #huernia #flowering plants #in bloom #houseplants #huernia zebrina #my plants

[rattyexplores]

Mother-of-Millions

Kalanchoe delagoensis

20/03/23 - NSW

#Kalanchoe delagoensis #Mother-of-Millions #Kalanchoe #Kalanchoes #Crassulaceae #stonecrops #Magnoliopsida #Dicots #Angiospermae #angiosperms #Flowering Plants #flowers #Tracheophyta #Vascular Plants #Plantae #Plants #botany

[florealegiardini]

View from the balcony of our villa in Granada, Spain, which was covered in Wisteria ~ Via Warren Bodnaruk

#Wisteria #flowers #flowering plants #patio #granada #Andalusia #España #Spain #architecture #edit: garden #garden #my edit

[tomwindeknecht]

Spring in the desert

Agave Century Plant in bloom

#agave #century plant #cactus #bloom #flowering plants #flowering cactus #desert plants #teampixel #team pixel #minimal #minimalism #botanical #botany #joshua tree #california

[heaveninawildflower]

Viola Tricolor (1868) by Abraham Jacobus Wendel  (1826-1915)

Chromolithograph: G. Severeyns.

Wikimedia.

#botanical illustration #viola tricolor #viola #botanical art #flowering plants

[angelnumber27]

Opium poppies (Papaver somniferum)

#opium #opium poppy #opium poppies #poppies #poppy #poppy flower #papaver somniferum #flowers #flora #plants #plantwave #green #flowering plants #plant #poppy plant #drugs

[jillraggett]

Plant of the Day

Wednesday 6 September 2023

In the window of this historic croft was a Pelargonium zonale (geranium) cultivar. It may not thrive in the winter but it was flowering in the early autumn sunshine.

Jill Raggett

#pelargonium #geranium #indoor plants #flowering plants #container plants #windowsill #houseplants #croft #plants #horticulture #red flowers #sandy #orkney

[heather-rajendran]

Marsh marigold (Caltha palustris) wildflower photos I took yesterday 15/04/2024, Stanley, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, UK

#nature #nature photography #british nature #wild #ranunculaceae #yellow flower #yellow flowers #yellow floral #yellow #wild plant #plant #plants #plant photography #wild plants #wildflora #wildflower photography #wildflower #wildflowers #wild flowers #flower #flowers #flower photography #blooms #bloom #flowering plants #blooming #botany #botanical #flora #floral

[elisanous]

Hoodia cactus

#nature #cactus #flowers #instagram #nature photo #nature photography #nature life #plants #desert #flowering plants #southern africa #succulents

[dougdimmadodo]

Common Bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta)

Family: Asparagus Family (Asparagaceae)

IUCN Conservation Status: Unassessed

Adapted to life in deciduous forests with dense canopies that limit the degree to which low-growing plants can access sunlight, Common Blubells survive by rapidly developing and reproducing during the early spring before the trees around them develop their leaves. In the later spring and early summer, as taller competing plants develop leaves, the flowers, stems, leaves and even roots of members of this species wither as they enter a dormant state until the following spring, with only an onion-like subterranean bulb, packed with sugars produced through photosynthesis during the non-dormant period, remaining; come next year's spring, the sugars in the bulb are used to facilitate the rapid development of new roots and leaves, allowing the bluebell to repeat the process year after year. Common Bluebells can reproduce both sexually (producing 5-12 small, pale-purple bell-shaped flowers that droop notably to one side when in bloom, with each flower possessing pollen-producing "male" organs and pollen-receiving "female" organs, with any flower that is pollinated developing into a small seed-filled pod that drops its seeds as the plant goes dormant) and asexually (with new but genetically identical bulbs, known as "daughter bulbs" developing as offshoots from the sides of an existing mature bulb, known as a "mother bulb",) and as they thrive in shady deciduous forests and are unable to easily disperse their seeds or bulbs over any great distance, it is not unusual for the understory of a forest that supports members of this species to be completely dominated by them during the spring - such forests are referred to in some regions as "bluebell woods'."

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Image Source: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/56132-Hyacinthoides-non-scripta

#common bluebell #Common Bluebell #bluebell #botany #biology #angiosperm #angiosperms #flowering plants #flowers #plant #plants #wildlife #European wildlife #flower

[los-plantalones]

these don’t look like no lipstick i’ve ever seen

#plants #houseplants #flowers #lipstick plant #aeschynanthus #flowering plants #my plants

[rattyexplores]

Beautiful button orchid growing on a palm tree.

17/01/24 - Dischidia nummularia

QLD:WET - Cairns

#nature #Dischidia nummularia #Button Orchid #Plantae #plants #botany #Milkweeds #Gentianales #Magnoliopsida #Dicots #Angiospermae #Flowering Plants #angiosperms #Tracheophyta #Vascular Plants

[florealegiardini]

View from the balcony of our villa in Granada, Spain, which was covered in Wisteria ~ Via Warren Bodnaruk

#Wisteria #flowers #flowering plants #patio #granada #Andalusia #España #Spain #architecture #edit: garden #garden #my edit

[wikipediapictures]

Paphiopedilum subg. Cochlopetalum

#paphiopedilum #cochlopelatum #wikipedia #wikipedia pictures #nature #plants #botany #flowers #flowering plants #orchid family #orchid #orchidaceae #venus slipper

[wyldeplantlife]

My African Violet rescue

Got it for someone else as a Christmas present, showed up frostbitten and nearly dead

Now thriving 20/3/23

#indoor plants #houseplants #house plants #tropical plants #plants #flowering plants #plantblr #plant decor #african violet #artificial lighting