I took this photo the other night because it reminded me of a moon flower, a large glowing white bloom that attracts garden insects and people. It is a photo of a crescent moon in the night sky with a hint of mountain.

Moon flowers, on a starry and full moon night, appear to be gazing heavenward. In fact, if blooming prolifically, they appear to be a whole crowd of amateur astronomers eagerly searching the night sky, a crowd of alien amateur astronomers, but still fun to stand around with in the garden at night, if you do things like that.

I do things like that.

A moon flower, no doubt given that name because it opens and blooms progressively as the day closes and evening progresses, could be imagined as the opposite of the morning glory, which begins to open at dawn and glow with each particle of sunlight, closing tightly at the end of day.

They are not really opposites because they are in the same family as the morning glory. These flowers have hallucinogenic properties and, like another garden plant, Angel Trumpets, can be very dangerous if ingested.

The moon flower is velvety and has a subtle and intoxicating fragrance. You could call it heavenly.

The interior of both the moon flower and the morning glory, when fully opened, looks like a starfish. Starfish are sometimes called sea stars.

What an odd coincidence of form.