has just returned from visiting Japan,
and whilst many visitors and locals go to see the cherry blossoms at this time of the year, here is one flower in Japan many walk by, Diphylleia grayi and why is this flower so special? It turns
translucent in contact with water, native to wooded mountainsides in the colder regions of
Japan, “skeleton flowers” bloom from mid-spring to early-summer, their white
petals are completely opaque in dry conditions, but as rain begins to fall,
they become almost crystal clear, giving the flower an almost ghostly look, when the rain stops and the petals dry, the skeleton flower goes back to its
plain white self, photograph by E-190/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA
3.0),
here is the actual before and after by #AnotherRainyDayWonder,
“On sunny days the air–liquid interface of the petals causes diffuse reflectance, endowing the petals with a white colour, whilst on rainy days water enters the petals, yielding a water–water interface, increasing light transmission so they turn transparent,” Chemistry World explains, I wonder how many people have just walked by this flower without knowing about its remarkable change?
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