Development of a Zinnia Flower

February 24, 2021

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Photographer: Menashe Davidson
Summary Author: Menashe Davidson

When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for the moment
- Georgia O’Keeffe

In nature, flowers have a simple purpose: reproduction. Insects are lured into their pollen-filled centers to facilitate the plant’s fertilization and survival. Coincidentally, humans are attracted by the harmonious colors, soft curves, fragrance and symmetrical forms of flowers.

Zinnias (family compositeae) convert all their shoots on every stem into flowering branches and have a single flower head (top). The head consists of small, fertile, symmetrical flowers gathered in the central disk (disk florets), surrounded by a petal-shaped row of infertile and asymmetrical flowers (ray florets, in the periphery). Very popular in horticulture, zinnias are excellent plants to have in my apartment garden. With them close by, I'm able to photograph all stages of growth (bottom). In these pictures, I focused on the core of the flower's head (capitulum) as it matured. The resulting photos show the magnificent beauty of the variable shapes, colors and curves.

Like the painter O'Keeffe said, it became my world for many moments.