Clare Florist Blog

Scary flowers and plants for Halloween

Happy Halloween! We hope tonight you can get dressed up and have a little bit of fun with the spirit of Halloween with its witches and wizards, ghouls and ghost, large quantities of sugar and hyperactive children. So what more appropriate day than to showcase some plants which have names, the appearance and characteristics to be part of any Halloween haunted house.

Tacca Chantrieri – The Bat Flower

This unusual looking flower would definitely make the garden of its owner a place many wouldn’t want to visit. With its black flowers, wing shaped leaves and long dangling whiskers this plant grows in the tropical forests of the Yunnan Province in China

Spilanthes Oleracea – The eyeball plant

Giving a true meaning to the hills have eyes, the flowers of this plant are a yellow ball with a large red iris making there natural habitat in the warmer climates of South America look like it is covered with watching eyes. Ironically however the lush dark green foliage of this plant is edible and used in salads for its peppery taste and can be chewed to south toothache with its anaesthetic properties.

Amorphophallus titanium – The Corpse Plant

Known as not only the largest flower in nature this plant is renowned for having a smell of rotting meat and being the smelliest plant in the world. Found in rainforests and limestone hills of Sumatra, Indonesia this unique plant is popular for cultivation.

Ficus aurea – The Strangler fig

Out first horror plant, this parasitic plant native the Florida Keys and West Indies begins its life when its seeds lodge In the bark of its host. It then develops a route system into the air as well as into the host allowing it to feed of the nutrients from both sources. Over time the roots will reach the ground and develop their own system and kill off the host. Not a plant to be messed with.

Rumex sanguineus - Bloodwort

Bloodwort is our first poisonous plant. Not only does the plant have red veined leaves and a really tendency to come back from the dead when you try to remove it but it is also kills of animal cells just by touching it leaving large scabs and a painful burning sensation.

Monotropa uniflora - The ghost plant

This plant (yes it is a plant) has no chlorophyll which means it doesn’t need sunlight to grow. This plant is part of around 3000 species of  non-photosynthetic flowering plants. This plant can be find in very dark forests and even grows at night.

 

Scientists create robot powered by artifical Venus fly trap

We can all recognise the Venus flytrap when presented to us as a question in a pub quiz, its unique shape and menacing mechanism of survival strike fear into the hearts of those who first see it. But its unique survival mechanism gives it a substantial evolutionary advantage in areas of poor soil quality and low nutrient content as the Venus flytrap gains its minerals and nutrients from the bugs and flying insects it ensnares in its jaws.

If they only looked like this

Scientist from universities in South Korean and Maine, USA have developed robots that can mimic the Venus flytrap trapping mechanism and devour their catch to produce electricity to power themselves. The Venus flytraps unique mechanism comes from two specially adapted leaves which on the inside are covered with thousands of tiny hairs. These hairs act as triggers and when brushed by an insect cause the leaves to snap shut in less than a tenth of a second. The pocket created by the shutting leaves fills with an enzyme sectreation which breakdown the insect for its nutrients.

 

Powering robots by insects has something that has been experimented with for the past decade. In previous robotics experiments scientist created Ecobot, a self-sustainable robot that is powered by microbial fuel cells which break down insects and liberate free electrons from them to be used to power a circuit. The previous problem however was that these cells had to be loaded with dead insects by hand or attract insects with a UV lure which made the system neither fully autonomous and very energy inefficient. The robotic flytrap allows these systems to become completely autonomous through using special materials that can be open or closed using very small electrical currents which are triggered when an insect lands on the specially coated inside surface which forces the insects down into a bacterial soup which breaks them down for the their free electrons.

Full autonomic self-sustainable robots powered by insects, awesome!!

For a more indepth look check out the original article on new scientist.com

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21228356.100-robot-venus-flytraps-could-eat-bugs-for-fuel.html

Halloween Facts and Awesome Pumpkin Carvings

 

With us being close to the end of the week, our brains are tired, were looking forward to the weekend and in need of some mental stimulation. Here are some facts and awesome halloween carvings since Halloween is just a few days away and all of us at Clare Florist are very excitied for all the fun and games.

Did you know - Halloween facts?

• Orange and black are the colours of Halloween as orange is associated with the fall harvest and black with darkness and death.

• Black cats were originally believed to protect a witch’s power from negative forces.

• The worlds largest pumpkin is 1818.5 pound and was carved into a zombie sculpture.

• About 99% of all pumpkins sold in the USA are made into Jack O’Lanterns

• In 2009 Halloween costume sales exceeded $6 BILLION. Adult sales accounted for 62% of those.

• One Halloween superstition is that if you see a spider on Halloween it is meant to be a deceased loved one watching over you 

Awesome Pumpkin Carvings

Which one is your favourite? Sound off in the comments below

Weird and wonderful Wednesday – Glow in the dark fungi

Since were getting ever closer to Halloween with its ghosts, ghouls, and witches, and all things paranormal and possessed, our weird and wonderful Wednesday blog will look at natures own spirits of the night. With names like the Jack O’Lantern mushroom and the ghost fungus these fungi all have one thing in common, they can all glow in the dark.

 

This magnificent property stems from one simple biological characteristic. Like many fish, arthropods and marine invertebrates these fungi contain a chemical reaction which produces light as a by-product. Within each of the fungi are two chemicals, a pigment and an enzyme; the pigment reacts with oxygen to create light with the enzyme acting as a catalyst helping to speed up the reaction. With over 1.5 million species of fungus on earth, only 71 of these display this property and even fewer have affect more than a small portion of the cap.

 

The ghost fungus (Omphalotus nidiformis) found in southern Australia and the Mycena from south America both display this property very strongly and are parasites found feeding and growing on dying, dead or rotting trees on the forest floor. The ghost fungus has a cap that ranges in colour with tints of orange, brow, grey and even black and a white gills while the Mycena are far smaller, no larger than a few centimetres tall. Both these fungi in low lighting conditions and at night can be seen to glow from top to bottom with the gills having the strongest luminescence and look spectacular

 

Most other bioluminescent fungi have similar properties to the ghost fungus honey mushroom, panellus stipticus and Mycena are all found in dead and rotting trees. But beware, if you ever find these mushrooms in the wild I would strongly advise you not to eat them, read your book by them, bask in their eerie glow and admire nature at work as if you eat them you will become seriously ill within around 30mins as the chemical which is responsible for the luminescence is toxic when ingested.

Tips for Tuesday - Keep those flowers alive this winter

Having had our first frost this week of the winter what better tips to give than how you can keep your indoor and outdoor plants alive this winter. It’ll require a bit of work to keep your flowering friends alive but with some simple expert tips to help spring will come around and just as quickly as it went.

Indoor Plants

• Reduce the watering schedule and also let the soil dry out between waterings as the plant in winter is much less active than in summer.

• For the same reasons as watering don’t fertilise or feed the plant unless they are growing vigorously.

• During the sunny days move your plants to sunny areas of the house and away from the cold and drafty parts of the house. To ease the lugging of plant pots invest in some Wooden Flower Pot Stand.

• Try to keep temperature as constant as possible and also since winter air is very dry grouping plants together and placing pots on a tray of damp gravel.

Outdoor Plants

• The most important thing for outdoor plants is to cover the soil with first a layer of compost and food followed by layers (2-3 inches) of mulch such as shredded leaves, cut grass, wood chips or newspaper. These provides valuable insulation and helps prevent the soil freezing

• Outdoor flowerpots provide no insulation from the cold so leaving them outside will most likely see the death of your plants. If your able to bring the flowers inside and treat them like your indoor plants for the winter. Alternatively if you can’t, compost, food and mulch the top and line the inside of the pot in bubble wrap to provide it with extra insulation.

• Life the pot of the ground so that any water can drain through and run away which will prevent it from freezing under the base of the pot.

• Water is important over this period as not to allow the roots to dry out, but windy and sunny days will cause havoc with schedules. Try to move your plants to a area sheltered from the wind and the amount sunlight can be controlled by wrapping aluminium foil on the outside to reflect the suns energy and prevent the pot drying out in afternoons.

The dodder vine stalks its victims by smell

With Halloween just over a week away what better way to prepare us than taking a look at a family of real life horror plants known as Cuscuta (Dodder). The dodder which has names such as devil's guts, devil's hair, devil's ringlet, goldthread, hailweed, hairweed, hellbine, love vine, pull-down, strangleweed, angel hair, and witch's hair (see the Halloween theme) are a family of thin parasitic vines which are found in temperate to tropical climates across the world.

What makes this plant rather scary is that unlike most parasitic plants which grow because they have landed on a particular plant or tree, the dodder actively seeks out its host by following the scents they release. The plant starts out as a tiny tendril with now roots and leaves and has around a week to find a host to attach itself to our it dies. The way it finds its host is through detecting the smells of nearby plants/vegetables and foliage and shows preference to when given a choice. In one experiment where the dodder had a choice between a tomato and some wheat the vine always went for the tomato.

Once the vine attaches itself to the host it begins to wrap itself around the stem. If the host contains nutrients and food that will be beneficial to the dodder it produces haustorium, an appendage much like a root, which buries itself into the hosts tissue and draws out the nutrients from within. The original root then dies away leaving the plant to grow and attach it self to multiple plants, which in tropical climates spreads and grows nearly continuously.

If plants could speak I am pretty sure that when they saw one of these coming there would be a deafening scream

Flower Facts for Thursday

With us being close to the end of the week, our brains are tired, were looking forward to the weekend and in need of some mental stimulation. Here are some facts, figures, challenges and general fun to keep us all occupied for one more day.

Did you know?

• Plants have a hardiness rating of 0-12 depending on the temperatures they can survive up to. For a rating of zero plants can survive below –51.1^oC, some examples of Zone 1 plants which can survie to –45.6^oC:

                            Populus tremuloides  (quaking aspen)

                            Potentilla pensylvanica  (Pennsylvania cinquefoil)

                            Rhododendron lapponicum  (Lapland rhododendron)

                            Salix reticulata  (netleaf willow)

• There are plants which do not need sunlight to grow. These non-photosynthetic flowering plants are parasitic on fungus or other plants, but can grow in dark and crowded environments.

• Alternatively there are fungi which can glow in the dark such as the Jack O’Lantern mushroom and ghost fungus

• There are techniques called hydroponics which allow you to grow plants without any soil. Instead they grow in a water and nutrient solution.

Jokes

Why did the Fungi leave the party?

Highlight below text to see answer
There wasn't mushroom.

Why did the Mushroom get invited to all the parties?

Highlight below text to see answer

'Cuz he's a fungi!

Brian Teaser

Of all vegetables, only two can live to produce on their own for several growing seasons. All other vegetables must be replanted every year. What are the only two perennial vegetables?

Highlight below text to see answer

Asparagus and rhubarb.

 

Weird and Wonderful Flowers - Giant Orchid

This weeks weird and wonderful blog feature looks at one of, if not thee, largest orchid species in the world, Grammatophyllum speciosum. With numerous names and pseudonyms including the Giant Orchid, Tiger Orchid, Sugar Cane Orchid and the Queen of the Orchids this species is native to the warm and moist climates of the Asian tropics in the exposed areas of the lowland tropical rain forest.

In the wild this plant usually grows as an epiphyte in the nooks and crannies of large, sturdy trees where its roots become intertwined with each other to form a basket like structure that can capture the nutrients in needs. With this secure anchor the pseudobulbs hang down from the base of the roots extending along the trees branches and trunk to maximise the amount of sunlight it receives.

Due to its sheer enormous size the plant is not one for home cultivation as it can grow easily to a weight over 500 lbs and 18ft in diameter requiring a lot of space, time and effort for cultivation.  The largest giant orchid on record shown at the 1851 exhibition in Crystal Palace in London where it weighed in at over a gargantuan 2 tonnes. The orchid can have numerous raceme growing up to 3ms from the psydobulb which each can produce around 80 flowers which have a 10cm diameter making the orchid potentially huge. When cultivated in greenhouses and artificial environments the orchids struggle to bloom as they require vast amounts of sunlight and consistent warm temperatures with well-fertilised soils.

Just to show the struggles of attempting to grow one of these plants the Brooklyn botanical garden had to re-pot one of these orchids which was quite a feat

www.bbg.org/news/repotting_tiger_orchid/

 

Tips for Tuesday – Where to place your flowers

We all are aware that have plants in the home helps lift our spirits, helps clean the air and all round just makes the home a happier and healthier place. Here are some tips for creating a flower empowered home to match your personal style and décor using findings from recent research from Harvard University.

Where to place your flowers for maximum happiness

• Place flowers in the entrance of your house, they will be the last thing you see on your way out and the first thing you see on the way back in.
• In the busiest parts of the house usually the living room, kitchen or dining room place even just a few flowers as participants reported the greatest mood boost when flowers where placed in these common areas.
• Colour affects moods and feeling too. Blues and greens produce soothing feelings where as bright reds and oranges are far more energetic. Yellows and peaches are nurturing where as pinks and lavenders are romantic.
• To increase this affect it you have large open spaces or common rooms go form large blooms like lilies or hyranagea.
• Place a few stems in a thin vase, which then sits inside a bowl vase. Fill to bowl vase with potpourri so that the inner vase is hidden. This then can be placed in a guest room, bathroom or bedroom to brighten up and add some fragrance too.

• Experiment with using only flowers of one type or flowers of only one colour to match the room

• You don’t just have to use a standard glass vase to hold your flowers. Experiment with old water pitchers, antiques teapots, old champagne glass to personalise those casual arrangements.

 

 

Bat signal exists the the flower world

Plants and flowers attract various birds and animals through displaying bright colours, attractive scents with much research having been conducted into the mechanisms that plants have evolved to increase their pollination success. Now researchers from Bristol’s school of biological science have found that leaf shape can also play an important role in attracting nectar-feeding bats.

Jesse Barber

The plant that researchers studied was Marcgravia evenia, a vine found in the Cuban rain forest that has evolved a concave shaped leaf to attract the bats through producing unique echo-acoustic signals when hit by the bats sonar. The unique shape reflects back a loud and constant signature to the bats from different angles which resulted in the bats finding the plants twice as fast than without the leaf.

To determine whether echolocation attracted bats more quickly, researchers trained the bats in the laboratory to look for the feeder amongst artificial foliage with a mixture of special shaped leaves and other types of leaf. The feeder was then placed at one of 64 locations within the foliage and the times recorded from when the bat was released to when it landed on the feeder. They discovered that bats located the feeder in half the time when it was attached to one of the special leaves than when it wasn’t.

Flowering inflorescence of Marcgravia evenia. (A) dish-shaped leaf, (B) ring of flowers most of them in the male phase with anthers shedding pollen, (C) cup-like nectaries.
Image by Ralph Mangelsdorff

“For the plants, it increases the success of pollination,” Dr. Simon said. “For the bats, it’s good because it helps them find the flowers faster — they have to make several hundred visits to flowers every night.”

Since there are several hundred different species of plants in the Cuban rainforest that rely on about 40 different nectar feeding bat species for pollination the researchers except to find more plants have similarly evolved to special shaped leaves to attract the bats more readily.