In The Blink Of An Eye

All summer long I have been trying to watch the opening of a passionfruit flower. After much observation and amazement/frustration I tracked their opening moments to the hottest part of the day, somewhere between 1:30 and 2:45pm, while we are working on our afternoon lessons.

1:39pm

They open very quickly because try as I may, I hadn't caught the critical moments once all summer. Today I just managed to catch the special moment. I saw this poised bud and decided to walk around to the other side of the fence.

29 SECONDS later!!!

By the time I walked around to inside the pool fence, it had sprung almost open! This is in 29 seconds. No wonder I have missed each one.

40 seconds more

A slight further opening, then the remaining petals sprung open right in front of my eyes.

 Another 15 seconds

I was excited to have seen it and stunned at their speed. I looked around and found another bud about to spring open and just watched it. I was delighted to actually witness the three seconds of action. They really do literally spring open.

10 minutes later

The petals stretched right back over the next few minutes until the flower was merrily dancing it's short life away.
By morning it will be closed up as the fruit begins to swell.

 Taken early this morning, you can see the succession of sizes along this section of the vine. Some of the largest fruit elsewhere on the vine are the size of tennis balls. Last year it had no edible fruit, I nearly removed it from the garden.

A few days ago one of the passionfruit fell of the vine. After witnessing this afternoon's little miracle, I cut this one open to taste, yes it is beautifully sweet. Many more sweet moments ahead by the look of the vine this year!

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