Friday, May 27, 2011

Daughter Goes Traditional

Yes, Daughter Daisy sometimes puts on the red dress and hits the town, but there are also those time when she's Momma's little girl and shows off her traditional side.


I left this photo fairly large because I liked the textures and geometry of the flower. It's like a burst of soft orange. It might be worth a click to see that larger version. Enjoy!
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3 comments:

tim eisele said...

I suppose that, to find out what causes her to be redder at some times than at others, you'd need to have a continuous log of bloom color versus:

-Temperature
-Soil pH
-Watering interval
-Source of water (if other than rainfall)
-Fertilizer additions (if any)
-Air pollution levels (ozone in particular?)
-Number of murder weapons hidden in the pot . . .

Of course, there's the problem that "Given careful control of temperature, nutrition, pH, and all other imaginable variables, the organism will do as it damn well pleases", so this still might not make it possible for you to get red blossoms on demand. Still might be fun, though.

6:41 AM
K T Cat said...

Funny thing is, she has both kinds right now.

10:31 AM
tim eisele said...

Interesting. That means that, if color *is* controlled by an environmental variable, it has to be one that can change quickly (between the blooming of one flower and the next).

On the other hand, it could be a case of transposons, like in certain varieties of corn:

http://waynesword.palomar.edu/transpos.htm

Basically, color genes can be turned on or off in different parts of the same plant, depending on where they are on the chromosome in the particular parent cells that grew into that part of the plant. Not sure how you'd test for this, though.

11:52 AM

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