September 3, 2002

  • I'd never call this flower ugly.



    When the people of the world all know beauty as beauty,
    There arises the recognition of ugliness.
    When they know the good as the good,
    There arises the perception of evil.
    Therefore Being and non-Being produce each other.


      --Tao Te Ching


    The Hydnora is a flower that is found in Africa and Argentina.  It is a holoparasite meaning that it produces no chlorophyll of its own and must rely upon a host plant for life-bestowing carbohydratres.  It is truly strange in consisting of only a flower and root with no stem or leaves of any sort.  It's fragrance is very popular with flies as it smells like the most putrid, rotting meat.




    Probably not the bouquet of flowers you'd want to send in sympathy to a friend's wake.


    But I still don't feel that all because our senses are challenged by this flower that we should just consider it just another stinking parasite.  Never forget: we all come in different shapes and sizes.   To a drunken sailor bumblebee, this flower probably evokes images of mind-boggling brothel-rattling sensuous revelry. 


    Damn.  I almost just convinced myself to give up drinking.

Comments (245)

Comments are closed.

Post a Comment

notforprophet

Recent Posts

Categories

The End of Days

September 2002
M T W T F S S
« Aug   Oct »
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
30