Prairie Crocus - Wild Pasque flowers in early spring on ND Prairie with coulee in background

by Peter Herman

Title

Prairie Crocus - Wild Pasque flowers in early spring on ND Prairie with coulee in background

Artist

Peter Herman

Medium

Photograph - Photograph

Description

A furry little Pasque flower blooms on a hillside above a small ND coulee in early spring.


This is a Pasque Flower or more commonly known as “Prairie Crocus” found and photographed on the coulee pasture hills a short distance from our farm in ND. “Pasque” word origin is related to Passover and Easter, around which time it blooms, long ahead of all the other native flowers, and before the grass even turns green - It is truly the energetic and tenacious “eager beaver” of the native prairie flower kingdom. It blooms early in spring, when it still drops below freezing almost every night and snow is often still on the ground. Adaptations enabling this include:
1. fuzzy stem/leaf surfaces to hold in heat radiating from ground during darkness,
2. flower petals that are designed like parabolic solar collectors to focus suns heat on the stamen/antler area
3. Flower tracks the sun during daylight to focus that reflected heat from petals
4. Flower closes up tight at night to trap heat inside the flower so seeds don’t freeze (bugs often climb inside for a cozy night sleep!)

Image captured with 50mm macro lens (so background perspective is "as seen") in late April, 2020. I have many other crocus images on my page - just search "crocus"

Uploaded

April 14th, 2022

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Viewed 84 Times  -  Last Visitor from Quincy, MA on 03/13/2023 at 2:54 PM

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