SPIDER FLOWERS

The Spider Flowers are so called because of their extraordinarily long stamens which one can see clearly in the featured image.

Resembling the legs of the Anthropoid they are named after, the Spider flowers however bear only 6 stamens.

This gorgeous  bunch of flowers are called Cleome hassleriana ( scientific name) and come all the way from South America.( South Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and North Argentina) 

If you see carefully there is only one flower which bears a distinctively different hue to the rest.

A bunch of Spider Flowers

The morning dew settles on the petals and the buds jostle to get their share of the Morning Sun.

A strict   discipline  or pattern is followed  by the buds. Those at the base of the bunch bloom first , gradually blooming sequentially till the top.

Can you guess why?

An inbuilt order decides which BUD will bloom FIRST.

The stalk  carrying the inflorescence doubles over  under the weight of the large number of Spider flowers.

The exceptionally long pistils have an incredible outreach  so they succeed in the game of Survival planned by Nature.

Seven Leaflets form the structure of the compound leaf. Four Petals and Six Stamens make up the flower.

Game of 4,6 & 7

Humming Birds are attracted, in their native habitat of South America , to the Spider Flowers in droves.

In the Himalayas probably butterflies and Sunbirds take up the task of Pollinators accomplished by the Humming Birds in South America.

The flowers above were photographed near the house of Mr Prateek Swarup of the JW Marriot Hotel at the Brentwood Sanctuary, Mussoorie , Uttrakhand ,India. Coincidentally  spiders in hundreds had made the area their home as well.

Incredibly the Spider Flowers and Ker  Shrub/Tree ( do see my blog CHRISTMAS IN THE DESERT) belong to the same Family Capparaceae.

( the Caper Family).