I just came in from an evening expedition to the rows of dragon fruit (also known as Pitaya or Hylocereus (Latin name)) plants that are grown on the farm (belonging to the academy). The reason the expedition was taking place at this time of day (9 PM), when it is dark, is that the flowers of this plant only bloom at night. The plant is a kind of cactus that grows like a vine, and its flower also bear the names 'moonflower' and 'Queen of the Night'. The flowers are large, white, and smell nice. They only bloom for one night, so you could call them one night wonders. They really are wonders of nature.
Because there are very few pollinating insects about during the night, the pollination has to be done by hand. So we had a tiny biology lesson about how flowers have sex, out there among the big, beautiful flowers. The teacher in charge of the flowers had brought a small plastic container and a paintbrush. He explained what were the male and the female parts of the flower, and how you had to take pollen from different flowers into one flower to cross-pollinate them. He went around putting pollen on all the flowers' female parts so that the flowers would be able to turn into fruits with seeds.
It was strange and slightly magical seeing these wonderful, huge flowers, where during the day there had only been a closed bud. Instead of opening to the warmth of the sun, they had opened to the enveloping darkness. The moon wasn't even up, so the flowers weren't highlighted by the moonlight either. It was a strange and wonderful adventure, visiting this world of darkness where the Queen of the Night reigns.
Books read: 18
Pages read: 4886
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