Bonnie & Clyde

Set in Texas, the film “Bonnie and Clyde” recreates a major event in the life cycle of plants: the transition from vegetative development to reproductive development known as “flowering time.” Both internal endogenous factors and external environmental factors initiate this transition.

Endogenous stimuli for flowering time include age and the developmental phase of the plant. The most important environmental stimulus is temperature, usually associated with a change in seasons. Other external stimuli include light quality and nutrition.

The complex interaction between those internal and external factors determine reproductive success of a plant by ensuring that the flowering process occurs when conditions are most favorable for fertilization and seed formation. Salt content of the soil matters greatly.

Although plants require salts for development and growth, the vast majority of plant species suffer ionic and osmotic stress in soils of high salinity, which include soils in coastal regions and areas where prehistoric seas have evaporated to leave residual deposits known as "salt domes."

With no less than 111 salt domes within its borders, the state of Louisiana leads the U.S. in salt production. Louisiana's domes measure as large as six miles across and four miles deep into the ground. Salt domes usually accompany rich crude oil and natural gas deposits, as well.

Bonnie and Clyde died in Louisiana in 1934 when they stopped on a rural highway to help a farmer with a flat tire. Texas police, who had hid in wait for two days, shot them more than 100 times.

The town of Gibsland in Bienville Parish—home of the massive Prothro Salt Dome—celebrates The Bonnie and Clyde Festival every year in May. An acting troupe from Texas makes the annual trip across state lines to reenact the shootings.