thank heavens for latin

there are two types of thornapple. this is one. the other is hawthorn. the “haws” of hawthorn are their berries, and there is a famous southern jelly called “mayhaw jelly” made from overripe-apple tasting hawthorn berries. hawthorn is in the crataegus genus, which is good to know, because the little loop of seed pods pictured above is also called thornapple, but it is in the datura genus, all species of which are poisonous, “especially their seeds and flowers.” datura. crategus. let’s be careful out there, people.

winter datura branch with seed pods

cut flowers

i went out into a pristine snow today, hoping to catch some backyard plant unawares, in the act of being beautiful. i failed in my mission. they all looked weighted with heavy icing and a little bit depressed about the wind. then i came inside, and caught a glimpse of this rose before it could elude me.

cut-up rose stem

integrity

integrity is the quality of being whole and undivided, but also the quality of being honest and having strong moral principals. it is an admirable quality, perhaps never more so than when it must struggle to keep its shape.

douglas fir

what color is a dragonfly wing?

it is the color of the blackberry leaf it perches on. it is the color of the clouds seen through it, as it cruises for prey on a summer evening.  it is the color of the dark drawer it’s stored in. it is the color of the sky reflected in it through a window on a winter day.

(unidentified) dragonfly wing

to what purpose?

i’m sure there is a purpose to the micro variations of these succulents, and of course they are succulents in response to the dry climates where they evolved, but why exactly  that shade of cranberry and that other shade of dusty celery? why exactly that needle-tipped leaf vs. that lance shaped one? did these all evolve to be beautiful, or did we evolve to find them so?

collection of colorful palm-sized succulents