ZAP’S FACTS!
FLOWERS

A hibiscus flower opens at dawn - and is dead by sunset.

One single day. That's all a hibiscus bloom gets to live, no matter how perfect the weather.

2 min read
A hibiscus flower opens at dawn - and is dead by sunset.
THE FULL STORY

A hibiscus bloom is one of the most spectacular flowers in the tropics - huge, brightly coloured, often the size of a dinner plate. But it has a brutally short career. The bud unfurls at sunrise, opens fully through the morning, starts wilting by afternoon, and is gone by sunset. Many varieties last barely 24 hours.

The plant doesn’t seem to care. A healthy hibiscus bush just keeps cranking out new blooms day after day, week after week, throughout the warm season. So even though each individual flower is fleeting, the bush always looks like it’s covered in fresh ones.

This do-or-die lifestyle is great for pollinators. Bees, butterflies and hummingbirds know hibiscus flowers will be open and full of nectar in the morning, then gone - so they make sure to visit early before the buffet closes.

Some flowers smell like rotting meat on purpose - to trick flies into pollinating them.
DID YOU KNOW? Some flowers smell like rotting meat on purpose - to trick flies into pollinating them. Carrion flowers ditch the sweet perfume and go for the full dead-animal stench instead. 2 min read
Some flowers actually heat themselves up like tiny biological radiators.
DID YOU KNOW? Some flowers actually heat themselves up like tiny biological radiators. Skunk cabbage can melt the snow around it by generating its own body heat. 2 min read
Bee orchids trick male bees into trying to marry them.
DID YOU KNOW? Bee orchids trick male bees into trying to marry them. The flower looks AND smells like a female bee - confused males try to mate with it and end up dusted in pollen. 2 min read