Flower Day: A Story of 24 Hours and 24 Floral Lives

Knapp, a senior research botanist at the Natural History Museum, London, offers a lovely series of essays on and appreciations of the flower, using the conceit that the biologist Linnaeus suggested—creating a flower clock. Starting with the moonflower at midnight and traveling around the clock to the giant saguaro at 11 p.m., Knapp, with the aid of artist Katie Scott (Animalium; Botanicum), describes 24 plants in the order by which their blooms appear during the course of a day. It was not just Linnaeus who suggested that plants could be used to tell time; Indigenous cultures have long relied on the schedule of flowers. The features, function, size, smell, and region of each plant are noted, along with how they attract pollinators and evade predators. Knapp ebbs and flows through her essays, sharing different pieces of information. Historical notes (such as how early Mesoamericans used latex from moonflower vines to make balls for communal games) are shared, as are literary references: blue flax appeared in the journals of Meriwether Lewis, chicory in the poems of Andrew Marvell, and queen of the night in the writings of Erasmus Darwin.