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Full
Bloom
by Michael Hofferber. Copyright © 1996. All rights reserved. "O, ay; as summer flies are in the shambles, That quicken even with blowing. O thou weed, Who art so lovely fair and smell'st so sweet That the sense aches at thee, would thou hadst ne'er been born!" -- Othello, Act IV, Scene II As spring gives way to summer, most of the blooms of April and May wilt before the feverish efflorescence of June and July. Gone are the tulips and daffodils and lilies of cooler days and longer nights.  Have
you ever wondered why the tulip drops its petals just as orchids
are unfolding and while pansies and petunias go on blooming? Is it the
heat of summer that makes them fade? Or some aversion to longer days?Blame it on plant genetics. Flowers don't die off; they are deliberately strangled by the rest of the plant. A tulip's bloom, however beautiful, serves one purpose to the plant: pollination. A lingering flower saps the energy a plant needs for bulb and seed development. Once pollinated, its beauty is a useless distraction from unpollinated flowers, and so it dies like Desdemona at the hands of Othello, its life tragically cut short.
Orchids and other plants with long-living flowers keep their blooms longer because they are difficult to pollinate, often requiring visits by a certain species of bird or insect. Self-pollinating plants, on the other hand, usually have very short-lived blooms. Supported with funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Woodson is now looking for ways to genetically interrupt the plant's "kill the bloom" message. He wants to bypass Iago, if you will, and keep Othello enamored of his Desdemona.
" This is the state of man," wrote Shakespeare, "today he puts forth the tender leaves of hope; tomorrow blossoms." |
Rural Delivery Commentaries and advice on rural living by Michael Hofferber Visit the Rural Delivery Blog  Flowering and its Manipulation  Induced Resistance for Plant Defence  Science and the Garden The Scientific Basis of Horticultural Practice |