Moon and moonflower

A moonflower is like a morning glory, but it opens in the evening and blooms through the night. It's very fragrant. In Japanese they're yūgao (夕顔), "evening faces." In Genji Monogatari, the woman called Yūgao gets one of the most exciting stories--attacked by a jealous spirit of one of Genji's other lovers. Genji actually draws a sword and everything! (This is remarkable because mainly men in Genji Monogatari don't get any more active than slipping into women's sleeping quarters or taking walks.)

Here is a moonflower in the evening, preparing to open:



Here it is, later in the evening, unfurling





( another )

And here is the moon, a night before full, at 3 am



And the moonflower (this time taken with a flash), fully open

One more

wakanomori rightly suggested that we need the fading moonflower as well, evanescent as the dew that spangles it. Like the dew, fading as the sun rises.