On Saturday, a kettle hot day in the south of England, I watered this rose early in the morning. At the time its bud was even tighter than this and I assumed it wasn’t mature yet. I was wrong. Half an hour later I saw it again, wide open and ready for the blazing sun. That’s what heat does I thought, and wandered off.

However, as night fell, the rose’s colour caught my eye and I was amazed to see that its petals had curled back into the position shown in the photograph above.

Today, a cooler day, I watched the rose a little harder and saw that by mid-morning it had repeated the process, and its petals were as open as prayer. I have no idea why the flower does this, and have never seen any other rose do the same. Perhaps I have not been looking closely enough.

I think that what I’m seeing may be something called nyctinasty, and, as far as I can tell from a quick flick through the internet, roses aren’t on the usual list of nyctinastic plants.

If anyone knows anything else, including the name of this rose, I’d love to hear.

(My apologies to David Attenborough if he’s already tried to explain nyctinasty to us a thousand times!)

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023