× For the latest information on trail and area closures, click here.
  • Visit
  • Cistern
  • Events & Tours
  • Support
  • Donate
  • Plans & Programs
  • About Us
  • Public Art
  • Rentals & Permits
  • Calendar
Menu
donate trail map
Buffalo Bayou Partnership
  • Visit
    • Buffalo Bayou Park
    • Cistern
    • Sabine Promenade
    • Sesquicentennial Park
    • Allen’s Landing
    • Buffalo Bend Nature Park
    • Public Art along Buffalo Bayou
  • Events & Tours
    • Calendar
    • Cistern Tours
    • Boat Tours
    • Walking Tours
    • Underground Sounds
    • Summer Species: Bees
  • Rentals & Permits
    • Sunset Coffee Building
    • The Water Works in Buffalo Bayou Park
    • Eleanor Tinsley Park
    • Barbara Fish Daniel Picnic Pavilion
    • Permits
  • Support
    • Join as a Member
    • Become a BBP Patron
    • Volunteer with Buffalo Bayou Partnership
    • Donate
    • The Currents
    • Buffalo Bayou Boutique
  • Plans & Programs
    • Buffalo Bayou East
    • “Deeper Dive” Virtual Presentation Series
  • About Us
  • News
    • Press
    • Newsletters

Other Nations: A Naturalist’s Blog about Buffalo Bayou
by Alisa Kline

Sep 04

Dayflowers

I have fallen down a rabbit hole. 

It started so innocently. I saw a whitemouth dayflower that had a very flamboyant presentation. I took a few photos (that’s one of them, above) and posted them to iNaturalist, thinking that this might be a different type of dayflower. Nope. Same kind. Commelina erecta.

I thought I still might be able to get a blog post out of them so I dug in a bit. And I am lost.

Let’s start with the pollinator issue. There is a whole beloved bunch of insects that we affectionately refer to as pollinators. People put in whole gardens designed to attract pollinators and pamper pollinators. But that is a very plant-centric point of view. The insects see themselves as nectivores. They don’t go from flower to flower spreading pollen because they are angelic. They go from flower to flower because they live on sugar water and that’s what nectar is. The fact that they get some pollen on them while guzzling is not the point. Unless you are a plant. In which case, you’re running an open bar for a bunch of lushes in exchange for their assistance in the bedroom.

But not our dainty dayflower. This is one of very few flowers that offer no nectar. Getting help with pollination is almost always a matter of offering nectar or being the kind of plant that can just let the wind take care of things. But the dayflower puts all her marbles on pollen.

While most insects who visit flowers live on nectar, they often need the pollen to feed their larval stages, they also nibble pollen themselves, and there are insects who live almost entirely on pollen. So that’s the bunch our dayflower has to lure in. She does it with pizazz, stealth and a close eye on the pocketbook. 

See those bright yellow bits that jump out at you against those lovely blue petals? They show up best against the blue if you approach from below, and our dayflower very much wants you to approach from below. Those yellow bits scream pollen. They are in the right place and are the right color. Except three of them are frauds. They are stamenodes – pretend stamens (the organ that actually holds the pollen). The business end of things from the plant’s point of view are those little translucent swirly things hanging down hardly noticeable against that puny white petal. The two outer translucent strands are pollen presenting male organs and the central one is the sticky and awaiting female organ. In other words, this is where the business of reproduction takes place quietly and away from all that yellow up there. The business end is a toll booth; you can’t get up there without rubbing a bit down here and hey presto, a seed is born.

The offer of pollen isn’t entirely a sham. That strategy wouldn’t last for long and this plant is so successful that it is found in one form or another on almost every continent. That central yellow tongue is a functioning pollen producer, but scholarly articles disagree on whether the pollen it produces is as viable as what comes from those two below. It takes energy to create viable pollen and it seems our dayflower skimps a bit on the viability of the pollen in that big yellow to be nibbled upon stamen, saving the good stuff for the one’s you hardly notice at the bottom.

So, thats one bit of weirdness. The next is the whole jack-in-the-box situation. 

These flowers got their common name from the fact that they last only a day. Honestly, in our climate, they are lucky to be looking good at noon. They are incredibly fragile. If you handle them at all they liquefy.

Each flower head on our dayflower has four blooms within a clasped sheathe. In the morning, one flower uncurls through the sheathe and sings the siren song of pollen as long as she can. Then, that flower withers and curls, retreating to the sheathe. 

I added a red outline to help you see what the sheathe is. If you look closely, you can see the remnants of yesterday’s bloom tucked back into the sheathe.

If this flower was not cross pollinated by a visiting insect in the 6 hours or so that the flower was on display, it will self pollinate upon curling up. Self pollinating is not as adaptive as cross pollination, but it does at least insure that the plant gets another chance at a cross by seeding itself and trying again. The flower curls up so tightly that it curls right back into the sheathe.

The next day, it is the turn of a new flower to push its way into the world. But yesterday’s flower isn’t doing nothing. Any pollen that landed on the stigma is dropping a pollen tube into that flower’s ovary and a seed is starting to grow.

On the third day, the third flower is shining brightly, the seed from day 1 is looking nice and shiny green, the flower from day 2 (returned to the sheathe) is brownish and that fourth flower is getting ready to bloom. By the end of four days, four seeds should be getting set and the next inflorescence is getting ready to start a whole new cycle.

I have made an assumption that these events take place on successive days. In some of the literature, it is suggested that these may take place two to four days apart. But the mechanics are the same. In the photo below, I removed the sheathe so you could see what was going on inside.

This insignificant, ubiquitous plant couldn’t get more fascinating, and the number of scholarly article about it are many. Deadline pressures have convinced me to stop reading and start writing. But there is one more wonderful thing about this flower that I have to mention. All flowers in the family Commelina (and there are abut 170 of them) present an arrangement of two prominent petals and a third that is insignificant. The taxonomic name Commelina was bestowed by Carl Linnaeus (the father of taxonomy) himself. He named them after three related Dutch botanists, quipping that two Commelin botanists were conspicuously successful and the third “died before accomplishing anything in Botany.”

“[Animals] are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.”

—Henry Beston, The Outermost House

 

For sightings, questions or comments email blog@alisakline.com.

Blog Categories

  • Bats
  • Beavers
  • Birds
  • Buffalo Bayou Birds
  • Fish
  • Flora
  • Galveston
  • Houston Naturama
  • Hurricane Harvey
  • Insects
  • Reptiles

Blog Tags

Beavers in Houston bee bees bees in houston Birding Bird Watching Buffalo Bayou Houston Buffalo Bayou Park Buffalo Bayou Wildlife butterflies butterfly carpenter bee Cliff Swallows Cormorants Dragonfly european honey bee European Starlings Green Tree Nature Trail Herons honeybee Houston Houston Animals Houston Beavers Houston Birds Houston butterfly Houston flora Houston flowers Houston green space Houston insects Houston Parks Houston Wildlife Master Naturalist Native Birds Other Nations Blog pollinators Starlings texas bees Texas Birds Texas flora Texas Master Naturalist Texas Parks Texas reptiles Urban beavers Wildlife blog wildlife houston

Get Involved

There are plenty of ways to get involved with keeping our parks and trails growing and the bayou flowing! Check out our Volunteer Opportunities or become a Buffalo Bayou Partnership Member today.

Membership Volunteer

Stay Connected

Buffalo Bayou Boutique

Looking for a unique gift? Shop our Buffalo Bayou Boutique!
Shop Now
  • Home
  • Visit
  • Support
  • Plans & Programs
  • About Us
  • News

1019 Commerce Street, Suite 200
Houston, TX 77002

t : 713.752.0314    f : 713.223.3500
info@buffalobayou.org

© 2022 Buffalo Bayou Partnership.
website by CORE Design Studio. Log in

Back to Top Events & Tours