August 18, 2012. Speaking of yardlong beans – I've been trying for some time now to capture their flowers in a photograph. At almost any time I've looked, they just show their otherworldly pink-tan pouch buds, which appear in pairs on the vines. One morning, I spotted a single open flower, but when I returned later in the day, it was no longer there. I'd check every morning before work, around sunrise, and every evening after work, but never saw any flowers. Still, there were plenty of beans developing, so obviously flowers were opening and getting pollinated. My tentative conclusion was that the flowers must open in the morning when the sunshine reaches them, and close up some time later in the day. So my chance for seeing flowers had to be on the weekend. Sure enough, this morning I headed out around 8:30, when the first sun rays were peeking over the evergreens in the back of our yard into the vegetable garden, and found exactly one flower open. It's a nice one, too – pity they're so shy. |