Flower Time
That indefatigable botanist Carl Linnaeus made a list, over two centuries ago, of the times of opening and closing of flowers. Here it is:
- 06 AM - Spotted Cat’s Ear opens
- 07 AM - African Marigold opens
- 08 AM - Mouse Ear Hawkweed opens
- 09 AM - Prickly Sowithistle closes
- 10 AM - Common Nipple Wort closes
- 11 AM - Star of Bethlehem opens
- 12 PM - Passion Flower opens
- 01 PM - Childing Pink closes
- 02 PM - Scarlet Pimpernel closes
- 03 PM - Hawkbit closes
- 04 PM - Small Bindweed closes
- 05 PM - White Water Lily closes
- 06 PM - Evening Primrose openes
It is quite possible to plant a garden in the shape of the face of a clock with appropriate flowers plated at the site of the twelve numbers, and in nineteenth-century Europe this was sometimes done. On a sunny day, by merely noting which flowers were open and which were closed, the time could be told, at a glance, to within half an hour.
Today and Tomorrow and… by Isaac Asimov, 1973.
