Are you a plant person? Then have we got a treat for you.
Plant expert Darryl Cheng, of the popular blog and Instagram account The House Plant Journal (HPJ), recently posted a super mesmerizing time-lapse video on his feed that shows exactly what happens to two different houseplants during the course of a 24-hour period.
“I’m pleased to bring you…two of my favourite daily movers: oxalis and maranta,” he writes in his caption.
The video shows the plants moving in fast motion throughout the day—something you’d never be able to see in real time. Well, unless you’re sitting there watching the plants every second of the day, but even if you did do that, you’d likely still miss all the movements. The video really brings the plants to life via what’s called “nyctinasty.”
“Nyctinasty is the circadian rhythmic nastic movement of higher plants in response to the onset of darkness, or a plant ‘sleeping’,” Wikipedia describes the phenomenon. “Nyctinastic movements are associated with diurnal light and temperature changes and controlled by the circadian clock and the light receptor phytochrome. This is the plant sleeping.”
Interesting, right? We never realized that plants looked so beautiful sleeping before! And we never realized this is what they do in their “spare time” throughout the day.
We’re not the only ones totally amazed by this video. The entire Internet just can’t get enough of the elegant movements, and what’s being referred to as the “secret life of plants.” It’s also being described as “magical,” “incredible,” “wild,” and “so, so cool” dozens of times over.
There are also some pretty interesting thoughts being thrown around as well. For example, “Imagine if they’re beings with brains that just move much more slowly than ours,” someone wrote. “So, to them, they’re just moving around during the day, and we seem like super, super-fast beings who move like lightning.” Definitely something to think about.
“If only time slowed down l can see magic everywhere,” someone else wrote. We’d definitely agree with that!
“I’ll never look at my house plants quite the same way…always wondering if they’re creeping closer when I’m not looking,” someone else wrote, alluding to the fact that they’re more alive than we even thought.
Someone asks a pretty funny question: “Is this vegan porn???? Hahahahaha….. sorry. I could not resist.” Good point—though we don’t have an answer for that one!
The video was made as part of a collaboration with Angus and Celeste, an Australian ceramic design company that specializes in planters. Cheng says that the video takes an “engineer’s approach to house plant care.” It has since racked up more than 400,000 views.
It just goes to show that nature is more beautiful than we could have even imagined!
To check out the time-lapse plant video that the entire Internet can’t get enough of, check out the video below.
What do you think of this video? Did you have any idea plants moved this much throughout the day? What other time-lapse videos do you think would be cool to see?