Jack Go To Bed At Noon
Last year this rather exotic looking flower appeared on mine and several other allotments for the first time. Having been stumped (again) by Mr Allotment Warden as to its identity, I rushed home to find out what it was. It's salsify, aka the marvellous Jack Go To Bed At Noon - named as such because its flowers always close by midday. Here you can see both open and closed flowers - making it seem even more exotic and alien than in the first picture. I think this must be the cultivated version because the flower in my Francis Rose Wild Flower Key looks exactly the same in form, but is bright yellow in colour and called meadow salsify . Its other common name is Goatsbeard, which must be a nod to the fantastic dandelion-like clock which forms the seed head. With 'parachutes' like those shown above, who knows how far our plotted plants came from. I rather like the photographic dissection of the seedhead found in this link . Salsify is edible: its lateral shoots and fl
Very nie poetry Veg, I like it very much also creatively done.
ReplyDeleteHAPPY VALENTINE:)
TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY
JoAnn D-eyes/NL
I like your poem ... Happy Valentine's Day to you!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment earlier re: roses & Kenya. I have done more reading on this ... the environmental issues are troubling. Since reading this book, I've also discovered that Ethiopia is also a producer.
I think I read that Kenya provides 70% of all roses sold in Europe. This whole issue is worrisome. I'm spending some time looking for more info. on the internet.
Joann & Kate - thanks for stopping by today. Happy Valentine's to you both!
ReplyDeleteKate - have a look at the Earthwatch website (www.Earthwatch.org) - there should be some information about the research David Harpur is doing on the environmental impacts around Lake Naivasha. I used to work for Earthwatch and know David well. If there's no joy there, David researches at Leicester University, so there should be something on their website.
I like the ring of that poem!
ReplyDelete:-)
Hi there,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the info on Earthwatch - I've become fascinated by this issue. (Do you have an email address - I can be reached at katesmudges@gmail.com. I wanted to discuss this in more detail ...
Kate (who ate too much cake and chocolate today!!)
So creative and with only magnets. Hope you had a lovely Valentine's celebration.
ReplyDeleteHi Nikki - I'm glad you like it. It sums up how I feel when I think of you know who!
ReplyDeleteKate - I hope you got my follow up e-mail? It looks like you had a good Valentine's ;)
avcr8teur - you're too kind! It got a bit more difficult as the year progressed as my self imposed rule was to use up words in 1 poem and not reusing them later. You'll see that in later posts!
Hope you all had a great Valentine's - I did :)