Moon and moonflower

[asakiyume]

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








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



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

Comments

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

How moonflowers smile to the night.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

They surely do ♥

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

I suddenly thought, last night, that the wire fences at the house we should be closing on next month offer good space for annual vines. I was thinking of morning glories, cardinal climber, cypress vine, spanish flag, cobaea, even sweet peas, since some are partly shaded. (I need to dig trenches and fill them with compost, though.) But I hadn't thought of moonflower, and now I do. Thanks! On my own behalf, and on behalf of hawkmoths!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

You are most welcome!! Your fences will be so beautiful! (And fragrant)

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

If it works, anyway. :D

[yamamanama.livejournal.com]

The furled moonflower looks so cool.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

On twitter some people said like a unicorn horn. I was thinking of soft-serve ice cream.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

The furled moonflower looks like a unicorn horn.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Yes! This shape--like certain shells--is so beautiful.

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

How spectacularly beautiful! Thank you.

Are they scented, to draw the moths?

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

They are! Very, very fragrant. (Though the only insect I happened to see on it was an earwig :-\)

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

How fascinating! And how beautiful.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

And very big! About as big as my hand with fingers spread.

[lifeinroseland.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous! I can almost smell it.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

It was very fragrant, very sweet!

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Wow! Those are magical.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

It truly does seem like an enchanted blossom--or one that casts an enchantment.

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

How lovely!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

It was so exciting to watch it happen, over the course of the night.

[sovay]

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

I like the juxtaposition of the last two photographs the best, although the tightly furled moonflower of the first photo has a seashell, unicorn look.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

If I had a super fancy camera, I would have liked to have taken that last photo without a flash, so it could have seemed all ghost-luminous, the way it actually did in the bright moonlight.

But this is a good second best.

[queenoftheskies.livejournal.com]

They're so lovely. I would love to see one in person some day!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I wonder if they could grow where you are--I bet they could.

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

¡Que bonita!

I've always loved morning glories! These seem like a perfect companion in the garden.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I love morning glories too--we had them when I was little, and I always want to grow them.

[heliopausa.livejournal.com]

I love the perfect curves of the furled flower, like a sword, and how amazingly it opens to gentleness.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

What a beautiful way of putting it--opening to gentleness.

[rustica.livejournal.com]

That furled up flower looks just like the ends of an ornamental iron curtain rod I used to have!

And, wow - moonflowers? Who knew?! Thank you for telling me about them.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

My grandmother had a curtain rod like that, now that you mention it! I'd forgotten about it until now!

I've tried growing these a number of times, but starting from seeds, there was never enough time in the season for them to get to blooming (at least, not for me--I probably started too late). This time I got a seedling. So happy!