Floriography, by Gina Margolies — Flora's Clock

If one were in search of a tool to ascertain the time, flowers likely would not come to mind. Clocks, watches, and smartphones are obvious, but flowers? Yes, flowers, thanks to Carl Linnaeus. Linnaeus was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist. He is generally known for formalizing the modern system of naming organisms, called binomial nomenclature. In his spare time, Linnaeus compiled a list of flowers that open and close their petals at a particular hour of the day. It is by this list that we may reckon the hours in flower time, using the aptly named Flora's Clock.