“If you will look over the wise and the great and the useful you will find them down close to the ground”
Luther Burbank
Wild and beautiful... Wild flowers are considered by some weeds or pests, but I think that few things out there beautify our world more than these flowers. They beautify our environment and feed insects and animals, improve the soil, provide life saving medicines, inspire artists and soothe our souls if we bother to meet them outside. Let’s enjoy them! Bend slowly near the plant and watch it, feel its leaves and breath its breath, touch the flower – let the sensations impress you. Abandon your preconceptions and forget about the descriptions, be child again. Play with the beetles. Admire the many petals of the Flower. Seek yourself in it!
“...For scattered by the brookside
They soon small leaflets lift.
What mortal knows the secrets
Of Flora’s children shy,
Concealed in field and meadow,
That with the flowers die?“
Ray Laurance
For the curious naturalist:
Anemones are among the first flowers to bloom in the woods in Spring and among the last to survive the cold of autumn in the form of a fluffy seed heads. Chinese considered them flowers of death, and some Europeans avoided them fearing they would bring diseases. Herbalists and doctors have used them for medical purposes though, to heal congestions and ulcers. Pulsatilla occidentalis or pasqueflower is native of the American Rockies.
Trillium, a native North American plant, can be strikingly beautiful and attractive despite its unpleasant odor. “The mystic, magic three” - flower of the number three, everything comes in an order of three: three sepals, three petals, berries with three ribs, and, of course, three leaves. American Indians used it as an expectorant and antiseptic among others, modern gardeners still love it and everybody seems to recognize it in the woods.
Skunk cabbage - unexpected beauty of the forest – surprised me with its expressiveness and Winter blooming. I read something intriguing about it, only then had I started noticing it as a photographer. What a revelation! Connected to the depths, atavistic and secretive, this plant lives for hundreds of years; it might be the oldest wildflower you will meet. And if you meet it you are on wetlands. The Native Americans used this plant as a medicine for many ailments, while bees and other insects appreciate its coziness (skunk cabbage produces significant warmth inside its spadix) and rich pollen. Some warblers build their nest in the hollow of the spathe and bears emerging out of dens in Spring are digging the roots to feed. Despite its foul odor, skunk cabbage is special to many creatures. Don’t you think it is really beautiful?
Succulents – the camels of the plant world, are adapted to harsh conditions and prolonged lack of water. The cacti comprise of more than 1,500 species spread over dry regions of the New World.
Foxglove (Digitalis), beautiful and poisonous, is a common biennial plant found in gardens and forests or cultivated for the extraction of a valuable heart supportive dug (digoxin).
Now remember, Nature is to be experienced, not described.
d e c e m b e r 2 0 0 6
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