Specimen · N°004 · Mist · ▶ Film
Nebulocampa campanulataMist-bell Herb
This flower makes no sound.
FOUND 38.5°N 28.0°W · Highland peat bog of the Azores · ✝ EX · Last seen 2017
This flower makes no sound.
A small perennial about 12–16 cm tall. It barely raises its short blackish-brown stem, arranging thick silver-grey triangular leaves in a star rosette near the ground. Each plant bears a single pale yellow-white urn-shaped flower, narrowed at the tip and fringed with fine hairs that catch the fog. Before dawn, when droplets gather inside, a bell-like outline briefly shows through.
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This flower makes no sound.
Yet locally it has been called a bell.
The highland bog of the Azores.
Before dawn, as sea fog settles into hollows of black volcanic rock, the Mist-bell Herb appears.
Its silver-grey leaves lie flat to the ground in a star.
At their centre, a single pale yellow-white urn-shaped flower opens.
On the morning after three nights of sea fog, several minute dipterans, scarcely 1-2 mm long, were seen resting on the rim of the urn-shaped flower. They did not so much fly as walk along the wetted hairs, brushing pollen against the underside of the body at the narrowed mouth. In poor fog years visitation appears to fail, yet capsules were found on the same plants where the short style had bent inward, suggesting facultative selfing.
When dry, the perianth is a dull yellow-white and opaque, but just before dawn a fine film of water on the inner surface greatly increases its translucence. The outer waxy layer, the inner air space, and the droplet held at the base seem to form a temporary lens, revealing only the bell-like outline. That pale inner wall may also serve as a guide mark for cold-active dipterans entering the flower.
Within hours of collection the floral hairs collapse and the inner water film vanishes. Once pressed, little remains but the silver-gray triangular leaves, giving the plant the appearance of a small rosette herb attached to dark peat fragments. In older bundles it was likely filed as an immature plant of a known bog species; without the living characters seen in fog, it would be difficult to recognize as distinct.
