If you're planting daffodils, crocuses, and other spring-flowering bulbs and you don't get them all to the ideal depth, don't fret! Many flowering bulbs can *pull themselves* deeper with contractile roots! 📷 Rama Sisodia & Satish C. Bhatla; Mordecai J. Jaffe & A. Carl Leopold - ThreadSky

ferrisjabr.bsky.social • 91 days ago

If you're planting daffodils, crocuses, and other spring-flowering bulbs and you don't get them all to the ideal depth, don't fret! Many flowering bulbs can *pull themselves* deeper with contractile roots!

📷 Rama Sisodia & Satish C. Bhatla; Mordecai J. Jaffe & A. Carl Leopold

Comments

handle.invalid•91 days ago

Oh, so plants could legitimately evolve snaring vines that pull in prey

F-Fun

ferrisjabr.bsky.social•91 days ago

And some carnivorous fungi have essentially done this! They ensnare nematodes (tiny worms) in rings! https://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/Nematode_trapping_fungi

handle.invalid•91 days ago

That is legitimately cool!

hirokiboy.bsky.social•90 days ago

Wow.

chicagojcb.bsky.social•91 days ago

Never knew that. Thank you!

ilikeoaktrees.bsky.social•91 days ago

I have learned that Trilliums do this too.

mzchem-murphy.bsky.social•90 days ago

Not going to lie. This is basically me when it’s below freezing and the alarm goes off.

orioletucker.bsky.social•90 days ago

This is so cool

ajed.bsky.social•89 days ago

WHAT. I had no idea!

ferrisjabr.bsky.social•91 days ago

Flowering bulbs with contractile roots include crocuses, daffodils, hyacinths, many lilies, some alliums (onion, garlic etc), gladioli, freesias, lycoris, and triteleias

📷 Uni of Florida https://bit.ly/32QALKK

ferrisjabr.bsky.social•91 days ago

Other bulbs, like tulips and trout lilies/fawn lilies (Erythronium), do not have contractile roots.

But they can push the next generation to a greater depth using 'droppers' — underground tendrils that grow new bulblets at their tips.

📷 https://bit.ly/3G8zgFQ

ferrisjabr.bsky.social•91 days ago

If some bulbs can pull themselves deeper, can those too deep move themselves toward the surface?

Some gardeners think snowdrops and Lycoris can do so, but it's not well-documented and in some cases may be bc of overcrowding / clumping

https://johngrimshawsgardendiary.blogspot.com/2011/10/self-adjusting-snowdrops.html

ferrisjabr.bsky.social•91 days ago

Of course, if you plant bulbs really shallow & don't protect them, they're vulnerable to squirrels & other hungry/curious creatures. Way too deep and they may rot or never reach the light.

But, broadly speaking, they're a lot more resilient — and *mobile* — than we might think

ferrisjabr.bsky.social•91 days ago