Nighttime Flowers

As the summer solstice has passed, the longest and brightest day of the year being yesterday, it will now gradually start getting darker.

In the previous post I wondered why the air smells so good at night, so full of flowery scents. It's quite a different experience from the daytime, and somehow it also seems warmer - probably because the cold winds stop as the sun sets.

The reason the air smells different at night is quite simple, to quote professor Natalia Dudareva;

"Plants tend to have their scent output at maximal levels only when the flowers are ready for pollination and when its potential pollinators are active as well. Plants that maximize their output during the day are primarily pollinated by bees or butterflies, whereas those that release their fragrance mostly at night are pollinated by moth and bats."

According to Judy Sedbrook at Colorado State University;

"With the setting of the sun, the nocturnal garden awakens and the night shift takes over. Many plants bloom exclusively at night. Many more wait to release their heady scent until evening."

It turns out some flowers only bloom at night, others release their scent only when dark falls. If you've heard some of their names before, that conclusion might be easy to draw.. at least in hindsight; among flowers that bloom at night are Evening Primrose, Moonflowers, Angel's Trumpet, Night Phlox and Evening Stock.

Among those that release their scent during the night are Night Gladiolus, Climbing Hydrangea and Honeysuckle to mention a few. Even Basil and Oregano-plants give off their scent primarily at night. There's also a long list of white and reflective plants which bloom at night, and seem to glow when they reflect the moonlight. For a more extensive list of flowers, you'll find one in the article entitled The Night Shift


- I don't know about you, but I think I'm going to have to go for a walk tonight :)

The sun is back!

It disappears for four months each winter and now it's finally back.

Just to dispel a myth, and answer the inevitable question - no, this does not mean it's dark four months a year in Norway. It simply means where I'm from, we don't get direct sunlight between mid October and February 24th.

The reason for this is Norway's mountains. When the sun is at it's lowest point in the sky (winter solstice - December 21st for the northern hemisphere), due to the tilt of the earth's axis the rays have no chance of making it over the mountains and down into the valley between them.

It looks something like this (no laughing please, I only have a tiny eee and a sucky touchpad with malfunctioning buttons);


This is more or less what the valley looks like, lake in the bottom, our house the red one on the left. The yellow sun is the "summer sun" - it's high in the sky (the northern part of the earth is tilting towards it), the orange "winter sun" is lower in the sky.

Clearly, no direct sunlight does not mean it's pitch black outside, which a lot of people seem to think - although when the sun is at its lowest point we only have light for around five-six hours a day. Basically, we're in the shade for one third of the year - it's dark and it's cold.


Which hopefully explains (in the simplest way possible) why I'm so the glad the sun "is back" - it means a little warmth, a little light, and only a little more time until spring comes!