Clock flower
A few weeks ago I came upon this flower. None of my photos of it came out very good because the flower had so many layers and my camera only wanted to focus on one at a time. A Japanese man appeared and told me the flower is called 時計草 (tokeiso or clock grass). In English I think it is called blue passion flower (Passiflora caerulea). The Japanese name made perfect sense as it did look like a fancy clock with hour, minute, and second hands. The man said the flower only blooms for two days. I don’t know if he is correct or not, but that may help explain why I’ve never seen it before (or since).
June 22nd, 2010 at 12:10 am
Where are you originally from?
Those flowers are more or less common pretty much everywhere in the world (except Africa from what I understand), especially under tropical climates where they can be everywhere.
The blue passion flower is originally from Paraguay but maybe the most common one everywhere nowadays. I doubt it blooms only for two days though.
I don’t know how common they’re in Japan, but I saw some last month when I was visiting.
🙂
June 22nd, 2010 at 9:49 am
That is a fantastically beautiful flower, no matter what is called.
June 22nd, 2010 at 1:24 pm
Very common ornamental as well as cultivated fruit plant. We used it as a hedge in South Africa. Blooms for a while, later on you get the prize, granadillas or passion fruit!
June 22nd, 2010 at 3:10 pm
David, I’m originally from California but have lived in several states and countries. The guy I was with has lived in about 5 countries, and neither of us had noticed it before.
In any event, I think the name is interesting in Japanese. Do any other languages call it “clock flower?”
June 26th, 2010 at 8:35 am
Fascinating!
June 27th, 2010 at 12:07 pm
Very nice flower, I haven’t seen it before.
With the help of a tripod (and on a day without wind), you can take photos of every focus layer of the flower and later combine them on the PC with some post-processing software. Or so I’ve read, I’ve never tried it myself. 😉
June 27th, 2010 at 6:09 pm
Touché, Haf.
November 22nd, 2012 at 8:49 am
I’m an Egyptian and I have seen it in Cairo.
we call it “Clock flower”
may be it’s not an Egyptian flower but we cultivate and raise it.
regards