In spring of this year, the Jeanette Goldfarb Plant Growth Facility bought a high-definition time lapse camera to capture plant growth and blooms.
We started with a Furcraea guerrerensis, a plant related to Agave. The plant sent out a single bloom stalk that grew to almost seven feet tall and produced white blooms. At the end of the video, you can see bulbils (the round green plantlets) start to form, a type of asexual reproduction. Over the months, these will grow into full plants.
We have also captured the blooms of Matucana paucicostata, a South American cactus; an Epiphyllum species with bright red flowers; and Huernia keniensis, sometimes known as lifesaver cactus, whose blooms open up over the course of only a couple of hours.
Currently the time lapse camera is focused on a three-year-old desert rose grown from seed that's blooming for the first time.
