Flower speak

I wouldn’t be shocked in the event you advised me Leucospermum cordifolium (Nodding Pincushion) grew on Mars. The alien flower has a thick, inflexible stalk supporting a number of tightly sure leaves. Atop is a spiny, golden crown — like stray hairs on a balding man’s scalp. A dandelion on steroids. You would’ve advised me Leucospermum cordifolium swallowed the solar, and I might’ve believed you with out hesitation. The flower calls for a warning signal: Do Not Look With out Eye Safety. Like an eclipse. 

My boyfriend, on Wednesday, sweetly gifted me a hand-picked bouquet of Leucospermum cordifoliums and blue Eryngium planum (Flat Sea Holly). I cherished the flowers however laughed once I acquired them. An extraterrestrial-looking bouquet of electrical blues and yellows. A far cry from pink roses or white lilies. Eryngium planum seems like a prop from the 1993 movie “Coneheads.” I cared for the flowers as I might take care of roses or lilies. I snipped the stems (stalks, in Leucospermum cordifolium’s case) and put them in a transparent vase with water. 

The bouquet has lived within the vase on my desk for the previous few days. It’s a sight for sore eyes, a welcomed reprieve from assigned readings and weekly Psets. Leucospermum cordifoliums and Eryngium planum collectively are shockingly stunning. I’m struck by their strangeness each time I gaze of their course. Why are they that shade? In what world, on what planet, do their shapes make sense? And but, by some means, Leucospermum cordifoliums and Eryngium planum are comparatively fundamental on the earth of flowers. Our planet boasts an exquisite provide of bizarre flowers.

Take, as an example, Dionaea muscipula (Venus Flytrap). It’s generally offered in grocery shops, like Dealer Joe’s, with peonies and sunflowers. Dionaea muscipula comes coiled collectively, like a snake, in a plastic pot and a sheath of flexible plastic. In our massive arms, swathed in see-through plastic, Dionaea muscipula seems tame. Their peculiar form is interpreted as a comic book oddity — innocent and entertaining. Thank goodness we’re people as a substitute of small, flying bugs. I can not think about a extra horrifying loss of life. One second you’re a completely satisfied bug, luxuriating in Dionaea muscipula’s intoxicating nectar. Half a second later, you’re trapped inside a lethal chamber, seeing the skin world from the gaps between Dionaea muscipula’s tooth. Hopefully, you gained’t be acutely aware when it begins digesting you. However realizing the cruelty of the animal world, you could be. Its acid will break your physique down into important nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur. Per week later, Dionaea muscipula spits your skeleton, prepared for its subsequent meal. 

How do all issues that chunk take the form of a mouth? Dionaea muscipula has, undoubtedly, survived lots of of years of evolution and specialization. Its present type is optimized. Its current type is a ruby mouth, snapping jaw, and gnarled tooth, just like the orange excavators that I see at development websites. Scooping piles of filth and grit into its metallic intestine. However Dionaea muscipula isn’t the one mouth-shaped flower. Psychotria elata (Hooker Lips) resembles pink puckered lips, as you might guess from its frequent identify. It has adopted a barely extra alluring and seductive technique than the Dionaea muscipula. 

I’m consistently shocked by how usually nature copies its personal designs. Many orchids mimic acquainted faces and shapes. We now have, in fact, Orchis italica (Bare-man Orchid). Orchis italica grows in lots of clusters, and to the untrained eye, would appear to be garden-variety Hyacinths. For those who ever end up within the Mediterranean area, strolling alongside the coast, the Hyacinth may very well be Orchis italica—a a lot rarer and fascinating flower. It’s a purple flower that takes the type of a unadorned man with two eyes, two arms, and two (three) legs. We can also’t neglect about Dracula simia (monkey orchid), which uncannily takes after a monkey’s face, or Ophrys apifera (bee orchid), because the identify suggests, seems like a bee. Typically I’m satisfied that we’re pushing our interpretations onto nature. Our inferior temporal cortex trains us to acknowledge faces and patterns. But there should be patterns and faces in nature for us to select up on it within the first place. Perhaps that is all a coincidence, or perhaps it isn’t. Orchids don’t have eyes. How do they know what a monkey, bee, or bare man seems like? Maybe nature simply mirrors itself. 

Regardless of this, there are nonetheless some flowers that insist upon their individuality. Rebellious and uncompromising to nature’s repeated designs, like highschoolers written by adults. Leucospermum cordifolium and Eryngium planum are examples of such flowers. In a world that values uniformity, these bizarre flowers remind us that there’s splendor in singularity. As I stare upon my Leucospermum cordifolium and Eryngium planum bouquet, I’m struck by how one thing so otherworldly can convey such marvel into my life. And who is aware of? Maybe someday we’ll uncover that Nodding Pincushions do develop on Mars in any case. Till then, I’ll proceed to marvel on the unusual and interesting world of flowers proper right here, on Earth.

A while has handed, and Eryngium Planum (the blue conheads) have began bending. They study in the direction of the lamp on my desk, looking for synthetic daylight. Mud settles finely over remaining, weird spines of Leucospermum cordifolium. The water degree of the vase is slowly sinking like Lake Lag. Quickly, the flowers will get outdated and I’ll should toss them. I’m wondering what is going to fill my vase subsequent. Child’s breath? Tulips? Carnations? Or perhaps one thing just a little weirder, like daisies.