Photos of Plants Other Than Dahlias 2025

blown_dry · 2025-01-07T21:27:53+00:00

Some wild columbine from May of 2023 to get the thread started. 🙂

bloomhjelm

I am not sure why the Daffodahlia was the talk of the town in 2024 but I have never heard of this amazing thing ... The bioluminescent petunia or "Firefly" petunia. This is not AI or an Amazon blue dahlia. Just a cool bioengineering feat.

Juliarugula

bloomhjelm cool! Do you know if it’s a GMO like the GloFish?

Bessie

bloomhjelm cool picture, I've never heard of that before. My husband has gone out kayaking on Tamales Bay many times to experience the bioluminescence and it sounds spectacular. I showed him your petunia picture and he said "oh good, the deer will have an easier time finding them" 😀. We have deer that visit out front yard!

blown_dry

bloomhjelm I want it!!

LoriDee

bloomhjelm Cameron P (who is in the Treasure Valley Dahlia Club) just posted on our fb page that he has one of these glowing petunias that he has in the greenhouse overwintering! I haven't seen it in person yet

Juliarugula

Bessie oh good, the deer will have an easier time finding them

I’m assuming that you have to shine a black light on them to see the glow. Is that right? Glow-in-the-Dark would be sooooo much cooler though!

Bessie

Juliarugula the bioluminescence in the water is from any movement of the plankton, which then light up. Petunias?

bloomhjelm

Apparently it has actual luminescent cells which don't need any kind of special treatment or food in order to glow. The company which created the Firefly Petunia has been experimenting with bioluminescence since the 80s.

Here's the blurb:
The firefly petunia glows brightly and doesn’t need special food thanks to a group of genes from the bioluminescent mushroom Neonothopanus nambi. The fungus feeds its light-emitting reaction with the molecule caffeic acid, which terrestrial plants also happen to make. By inserting the mushroom genes into the petunia, researchers made it possible for the plant to produce enzymes that can convert caffeic acid into the light-emitting molecule luciferin and then recycle it back into caffeic acid — enabling sustained bioluminescence.

drewtheflorist

The bioluminescent fungi are not uncommon in the woods of Pennsylvania, as a scout leader on camp outs, we'd run into them frequently. The first time is a bit freaky !

Juliarugula

drewtheflorist so are the fungi glow-in-the-dark then? Or do they require you to shine a black light on them?

It may sound weird that one would be wandering around with a black light, but we used to do that when I lived in Texas so we could spot scorpions, and I know rockhounds in Michigan who keep them on hand to look for Yooperlights. (So Not not as unusual as one might think for the naturalist’s toolkit…)

drewtheflorist

Juliarugula They glow in the dark -- bluish/green light

KitCMC

Juliarugula just had to google rockhounds & Yopperlights. Now I want to see one—very cool.

Juliarugula

drewtheflorist neat!!

Justafewdahlias

Icelandic poppies. These are just from a cheap 2$ pack of Ed Hume seeds I bought on impulse

Juliarugula

KitCMC my middle son is really into rock hounding . We have unfortunately not found a yooperlight in the wild, but I think he has a few he’s picked up at gem and mineral shows. Even though I’m a bit of an amateur naturalist, my eye is not well trained towards minerals. I’m constantly picking things up and saying “ooh! This one’s cool! What is it?” And he rolls his eyes and says “Mom, that’s just granite.” It’s always granite… 🙄

MissyWeitzel

Juliarugula I was super into rock hunting for a while! The upper peninsula of Michigan is a wonderfully beautiful place for plants and rocks. If you've never gone, it would be a great place for a family vacation! Your rock hound can try his hand looking for yooperlights, agates, Petoskey stones, etc.

Here's Miners Castle Point in Munising.

KitCMC

Juliarugula I really like the idea of a hobby that you can do anywhere in the world just by going for a walk!

MissyWeitzel We haven’t been to the UP, but have made our way up to Grand Marais and Isle Royale.

I wonder how many yopperlights I may have passed by 😳

Juliarugula

MissyWeitzel we went to the UP last year for a family trip for my parent’s fiftieth anniversary. It was so awesome!! But I gotta say, the drive there made me feel like I was back in Texas. It took FOREVER to get there! 😂. So I’m sure we’ll go again, but it’s not really a weekend rock hounding trip…

When we were there, we went to a nice beach where we picked up a lot of cool rocks. Then after we went home, I saw somebody post about going to the same beach that same weekend with their black light and finding yooperlights everywhere. I could have kicked myself. I hadn’t thought it was far enough north to bother looking. Oh well. Lots of cool fossils though!

MissyWeitzel

KitCMC I really want to go to the Apostle Islands in WI! Have you been there?

KitCMC

MissyWeitzel not yet! We have driven along 13 around the peninsula, but not further. It’s so pretty up there. I’d really like to see the ice caves one day.

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