The work of Nature!

Yui-li noticed these beautiful flowers in our back yard.  We immediately photographed it.  They were taken in close views, e-mailed to friends as a quiz, and asked them, “could these be orchids?”  I did not tell them how small they are, and did not show them much of the leaves.

 

These incredibly attractive flowers are actually the size less than my finger nails.  They are growing in large crops as weeds in the corner of our back yard.  Walking around it, we did see the small colorful dots on top of the weeds on the grounds, but never tried to look closely what and how they are.  This time, Yui-Li plucked one of them out and was so amazed at its complexity and its incredible beauty.

They are so exquisite, incite so much aesthetic pleasure in me, and probably would do the same in everyone who looks at it.  Searching into the google, “weed purple flowers”, I found the name of the flower: Lamium amplexicaule, 佛座, 仏の座。

According to the Wikipedia:

“Lamium amplexicaule (Henbit Deadnettle, Greater Henbit) is a species of Lamium native to Europe, western Asia and northern Africa.

It is a low-growing annual plant growing to 10-25 cm tall, with soft, finely hairy stems. The leaves are opposite, rounded, 2-3 cm diameter, with a lobed margin. The flowers are pink to purple, 1.5-2 cm long.

It flowers very early in the spring even in northern areas, and for most of the winter and the early spring in warmer areas such as the Mediterranean region.

It propagates freely by seed and is regarded as a minor weed. Sometimes entire fields will be reddish-purple with its flowers before spring ploughing. Where common, is an important nectar and pollen plant for bees, especially honeybees, where it helps start the spring buildup.

It is widely naturalised in eastern North America and elsewhere, where it is often considered to be an invasive weed. However, its edibility and readiness to grow in many climes often mean it is permitted to grow when other 'weeds' are not.

The specific name refers to the ampleixcaul leaves (leaves grasping the stem).”

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Now I have a strange feeling of guilt that for all these years I missed such a marvelous creature that is in abundance around our daily life.  It is probably because of its size, I tried to give myself an excuse.  We need to be able to see easily to notice something, of course.  But there are art works that are designed to be diminutive, such as, a whole poem written on a piece of rice, and have been kept in museums as treasures.  Lamium flower is certainly one spectacular, successful work of the nature.

I wonder how many of those wondrous, beautiful, adorable things we have missed because they are not “our size” or not in “our field”?  Life must be full of many spectacular things, awesome events, and respectable or adorable people and we have never been aware of them.

But why should I feel sorry for missing them?  It must be the nature in all of us that is always yearning for the truth, the goodness, and the beauty, (veritas, bonitas, pulchritudo；真、善、美).  Actually, everything on the earth, our world, evolves because of this human nature.