Nyctinasty

As it appeared on Missives From The Edge

We don’t tend to include flowers in the category of sentient beings. However, this year’s crop of day lilies and poppies opening and closing their vibrant blossoms to the amount of available light reminds me to do so.

Sleep movements of flowers, known as nyctinasty in botanical terms, are circadian rhythms influenced by temperature and light. These involve complex interactions between light qualities and the plant’s inherent chemical properties. In 1880, Charles Darwin published his book, The Power of Movement in Plants, documenting and discussing plant movements. With the assistance of his son, Francis, he established that plants, like animals, are sensitive to touch, temperature, and gravity, and he suggested that their responses to environmental conditions reflect evolutionary adaptation.

The definitive scientific explanation for nyctinasty remains unconfirmed. It is hypothesized that this phenomenon allows plants to preserve their pollen until conditions for propagation are optimal. For certain species, such as evening primrose, moonflowers, and datura, nocturnal blooming is advantageous for attracting their specific pollinators, which include bats and moths. Conversely, many flowers such as lilies, tulips, morning glories, poppies, lotuses, and waterlilies bloom during daylight hours.

We can easily see the similarity between those we classify as morning people, who wake up with the sun and feel energized early in the day, and night owls, who peak after sunset. Forcing someone to change a natural circadian pattern is deeply disruptive, like asking flowers to break their natural rhythm.

This dance of petals opening to greet the sun and folding when darkness descends speaks to an embedded cellular wisdom, a form of sentience tuned to the cycles of the cosmos.