As you can tell from this photograph taken in the Alpine Garden a couple days ago, autumn is arriving. There are, however, many flowers still in bloom locally, including this cheery ‘Lemon Silver’ Fremont evening-primrose.
Pollinated by hawk-moths at night, flowers of the species Oenothera macrocarpa open in the evening and begin to close the following morning, lasting only the one day (see Reproductive biology in Onagraceae (Raven, 1979) for a comprehensive examination of how plants in this family reproduce, including mechanisms that they employ to ensure outcrossing). I’ve added a close-up photograph of the flower, so that you can see the cross-shaped stigma, typical of many plants in the family Onagraceae.
Photography resource link: Petteri Sulonen’s Mastering Wide-Angle tutorial illustrates the different techniques required for the challenges and complications of wide-angle photography. Wide-angle photography is very alluring to me, but disheartening so far – my ratio of “keepers” to junkers is very low.
The background in this shot allows one to sense the size of the flower – a frequent conundrum when viewing macros. What are the cute little composites in the background?
Lemon Silver, now that rolls off the tongue so nicely, that I shall remeber it.
The cute little composite is Spanish daisy, Erigeron karvinskianus, which hails from Mexico and Central America (not Spain). The other visible plant is an Oxalis, either O. corniculata or the taller, greener, O. stricta, both pernicious weeds in the Alpine Garden, with explosive seed capsules and deep, fleshy roots.
Oenothera macrocarpa – Z5 – RHS Index of Garden Plants, Griffiths