… seems to have tossed some Deep Red Hibiscus seeds into a pot awhile back. Do not remember this, and am not even sure I’m correctly identifying the three feet tall stalk with massively about to bloom flowers all over it.
Once I realized it had big plans for itself, I moved it to a bigger pot and an even sunnier spot on the deck. Plus I’ve put some bracing on the stalk. Now I sit back and watch enormous flowers unfold.
Even so… UD has always preferred the recitative to the aria, the prelude to the fugue. She already knows that this phase – the slow velvety emergence – will be more exciting than the full bloom.
July 18th, 2021 at 8:35PM
Look at that epicalyx, UD! If it’s not a hibiscus, it’s something awfully close to it.
July 18th, 2021 at 11:39PM
Anon: You drive me to the dictionary, and this is what I find:
An involucre resembling the calyx but consisting of a whorl of bracts that is exterior to the calyx or results from the union of the sepal appendages.
I think I need to explore this further.
July 19th, 2021 at 12:19PM
The epicalyx is that ring of green spiky-looking things at the base of the flower. Below the calyx. Very characteristic of hibiscus and mallows.
It gives me a lot of satisfaction to send an English prof to the dictionary. Even for an obscure botanical term!
July 19th, 2021 at 12:29PM
Anon: Thank you!