Friday, March 2, 2012

In The Blink Of An Eye




All summer long I have been trying to watch the opening of a passionfruit flower. After much observation and amazement/frustration I tracked their opening moments to the hottest part of the day, somewhere between 1:30 and 2:45pm, while we are working on our afternoon lessons.


1:39pm

They open very quickly because try as I may, I hadn't caught the critical moments once all summer. Today I just managed to catch the special moment. I saw this poised bud and decided to walk around to the other side of the fence.


29 SECONDS later!!!

By the time I walked around to inside the pool fence, it had sprung almost open! This is in 29 seconds. No wonder I have missed each one.


40 seconds more

A slight further opening, then the remaining petals sprung open right in front of my eyes.


 Another 15 seconds

I was excited to have seen it and stunned at their speed. I looked around and found another bud about to spring open and just watched it. I was delighted to actually witness the three seconds of action. They really do literally spring open.


10 minutes later

The petals stretched right back over the next few minutes until the flower was merrily dancing it's short life away.
By morning it will be closed up as the fruit begins to swell.




 Taken early this morning, you can see the succession of sizes along this section of the vine. Some of the largest fruit elsewhere on the vine are the size of tennis balls. Last year it had no edible fruit, I nearly removed it from the garden.




A few days ago one of the passionfruit fell of the vine. After witnessing this afternoon's little miracle, I cut this one open to taste, yes it is beautifully sweet. Many more sweet moments ahead by the look of the vine this year!

Sharing at The Creative Exchange.

48 comments:

Joop Zand said...

All pictures are wonderful Karen....my compliments.

Greetings, Joop

HANS-PETER ZÜRCHER said...

eien grossartige Bilderstrecke liebe Karen, sehr sehr schön...

Grüsse aus der Schweiz

Hans-Peter

geanina said...

wow...great images :). have a nice day..

Nadege, said...

How wonderful...great shots.

The Nature Jotter said...

Amazing photos! It really was a beautiful show of nature! I hope one day to see tha same thing! Have you ever think about make a video of this??

Karen @ Pieces of Contentment said...

The thought of capturing on movie occurred to me as soon as I saw how quickly it happened. Must work out how to take a movie on my camera.

Robyn said...

I grew up calling them Granadilla's and remember as a young girl, my mum would make a vanilla sponge and mix passion fruit pulp with the frosting for the top of the cake.

Liz said...

Wow, Karen. So incredibly beautiful. I marvel daily at creation and how God made every minute detail with such precision. Incredibly amazing. Thanks for sharing.

Giga said...

Chyba bym stała i patrzyła na ich bardzo szybkie rozwijanie się. Szkoda tylko, że te przepiękne kwiaty tak krótko cieszą oko. Zdjęcia są cudowne. Pozdrawiam. *** I guess I stood and looked at them very quickly develop. It is a pity that these beautiful flowers so short please the eye. The pictures are wonderful. Yours.

Anonymous said...

Amazing! It opens so quickly and is a pure delight for the eyes. I never know all these things about passion fruit flower.
Beautiful moment! Thank you

Angela Häring-Christen said...

The flower is so beautiful and at the end of the bloom you can eat the sweet fruit. Wonderful!
Great serie!
Greetings
Angela

Amanda said...

What an AMAZING set of photos! Your shouts are always perfect!! BEAUTIFUL!!!

Jo`s Garten said...

Nature is the greatest artist, right?

Your pictures are amazing.
Love from Berlin
Jo

Mathilda said...

Fantastisch!!

LG Mathilda

Kaipiroska said...

The flower is so beautiful and the fruit is delicious :)

Susan said...

What a wonderfull flower and great pictures! I wish we would have your climate! I'm known with the plant and flower but there is never a full grown fruit to it.
But I planted my tulips today (4 months too late, but I think they will manage!) Maybe next week I'll start with a little vegetable garden.

LindyLouMac said...

I am so glad you did not remove the passion flower from your garden as this has been a delightful series of photographs.

Unknown said...

Amazing shots of nature's perfection. Great job!
Greetings

Sylvia K said...

Nature's perfection indeed and perfectly captured as always, Karen! Exquisite blossoms and such delicious looking fruit! Makes my mouth water!! I hope you and your family enjoy a beautiful weekend!

Sylvia

Marty said...

really gorgeous images ! such a beautiful flower and sweet fruits !
have a lovely weekend

FilipBlog said...

Great shots, the flower looks enormous.

Greetings,
Filip

Talibra said...

Ale piękna Passiflora, zdjęcia też piękne :)
Pozdrawiam.

laveta'splace said...

What an amazing thing to be able to witness. Beautiful pictures.

Cristina Ferreira said...

Como é linda a flor do maracujá, belissimas fotos, minha amiga.
E o suco de maracujá é uma delicia.


Beijos.

Marijke said...

Must have been wonderfull and exciting to this flower born. Beautiful and stunning also.
Have a lovely weekend
marijke

Rena said...

Since you said it's sweet, it's obviously the sweet kind. The sour kind makes heavenly juice! Interestingly, the flower is the same. You've captured its beauty so well.

Moois van mie said...

sio amazing and beautiful !

Barb said...

Absolutely wonderful - I enjoyed every photo. Such a productive little vine - glad you spared it for this season. Looks like it's busy producing marvelous flowers and sweet fruit. Splendid photography!

Ocean Soul said...

I ate passion fruit every morning at breakfast during our vacation in Mexico...I had no idea how crazy fast they bloom or what they even looked like when blooming...gooooorgeous. Thanks for the passion fruit lesson!

Jennifer {Studio JRU} said...

Oh my goodness... that is just amazing how quickly that happens! What an amazing gift to be able to watch something bloom like that right before your eyes!! Love it! :)

Giancarlo said...

Stupende immagini....brava!! felice week end a Te...ciao

Gillian Olson said...

This an amazing series of pictures, I had no idea they openned so fast. It is such a spectacular flower.
I am glad your patience was rewarded with fruit this year. Yhank you for sharing.

thefisherlady said...

what an amazing miracle so beautifully caught! so happy for you and so glad you could share all the beauty!

...melody... said...

These are WONDERFUL! :) I love passion fruit...especially in a smoothie. Thanks for sharing how it all happens.

Kala said...

Fantastic series. I love that last shot - it looks sweet and juicy.

Kateri said...

Thank you for sharing the miracle with us...pretty amazing! (and I don't think I have ever had a passion fruit, I wonder if I were to find one in the store, if it would compare to one of yours?)

Karen @ Pieces of Contentment said...

They are quite large Filip. I have just gone outside to measure today's passionfruit flowers, each one was 9cm or 3 1/2 inches across.

Seeing Each Day said...

That's incredible that the flower opened so quickly, in a matter of seconds!! You must have been so amazed while trying to click away. There's many things I love about your photos, and the clarity you manage is on top of the list.

Anita Johnson said...

Just catching up on your beautiful photography...this series was amazing...unfolding right before your eyes! We have 8" of snow right now, dumped here in a late season storm...looks like next week will be back in the 40's. I like that better!

My name is Riet said...

What a beautiful series of photo's. Passionsflowers are such beauties.

Lui said...

What an amazing plant and so gorgeous and you captured it well! I missed the opening every time I pass by one every week. And the one I saw has no fruits! You were lucky!

annalarssonphotography said...

Lovley series!

Lisa Gordon said...

Oh my goodness, how wonderful it must be to be able to grow these! Your photographs of the flowers are absolutely beautiful. So much detail in each one.

Thank you so much for sharing with us today at The Creative Exchange.

Have a wonderful day!

lisa.

Sherri B. said...

This is incredible! What a miraculous thing it must've been to see with your own eyes...and what a joy for me to witness it via your beautiful photos. Thank you so much for sharing - truly amazing!

Pat said...

What a wonderful series of shots! That fruit looks delicious.

Jeanne said...

This is quite incredible looking. I have "passion flowers" in my yard which look very similar, but mine are maybe 3 inches across. These look much bigger, and also, mine have no fruit, so must be a different variety. lovely capture.

Zinnia said...

They are truly a magical moment you captured with your camera for great pictures of the Passion Flower. You have captured it with such severity that the details appear extra. I wish you a wonderful week! Zinnia

Gardening in a Sandbox said...

The Passionflower is such a beautiful bloom. I have tried to grow them indoors with no luck. They require a lot of humidity and we are so dry in winter. V

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