I have enough time to stare at a little flower

African Tianmen winter with thorns

Asparagus densiflorus "Sprengeri"

Alias: African Wushu, evergreen

Ophiopogonaceae

Semi-shrub

Don't be frightened by the long and aloof name of "prickly African Tianmen Winter". In fact, it is a common semi-shrub in urban greening, with a slightly climbing physique.

At ordinary times, it is always ignored and, like most hedges, is a passer-by who has been silent for thousands of years. In autumn, its round fruit rare, pure bright red, slightly bigger than peas, brushed out the sense of existence for the first time. Peeled off the not-so-thick exocarp, inside is a big black and shiny seed, which is a favorite food for birds.

The berry is about 1 cm in diameter, green and ripe red.

The flowering period of prickly African Tianmen winter is quite long, throughout the summer. I wonder how many people will notice its flowers? Axillary racemes, hanging from the oil-green "leaves", a blossoming white flowers, are obscured in them, very inconspicuous.

Racemes axillary

But I have enough time to stare at this little flower. The floret is only half a centimeter in diameter and has six white petals, like miniature lilies. The apex of the back of the petals is slightly greenish. The most eye-catching are six short stamens, opposite to the petals, the anther is specially colored, orange-red. Usually, this color is described as "not red", but it is the exclusive symbol of prickly Africa.

6 tepals

Stamens 6, anthers orange

If you gently shake the flower branch or touch it with your hand, the floret will fall off easily. This situation usually implies that there are joints on the pedicel, just like Ophiopogon japonicus. Take a closer look, sure enough, I found the inflorescence with only small pedicels, a sense of vicissitudes.

The floret withered from the joint, leaving only the pedicel

There is nothing new under the sun, but the world of plants does the opposite, with endless passion, meeting for the first time from time to time. Have you noticed that when I mentioned "foliage" above, I added double quotes? Because they are not real leaves, but branchlets that grow into leaves, the technical term is "leafy branches", also known as "leafy stems". This is the most unique feature of the whole Tianmendong family.

The leafy branches of Castanopsis fargesii with spines are clustered with 5 branches, with 3 of the most, flat and slender, apex acute, slightly hard to the touch, with an oily luster. In other words, leafy branches are the most prominent presence of this plant.

Young branch

Leafy branches clustered, 1.5-3.5 cm long and 1-2 mm wide

So, where are the real leaves? The description in the flora is "the genus asparagus. The degeneration of leaves into scales ", at least from the perspective of the eyes, is equivalent to non-existence." This is the second common feature of Ophiopogon.

As can be seen from the name, this plant is native to Africa and has thorns. The thorn grows at the intersection of the main stem and the lateral stem, 3mm long.

The thorns on the main stem are 3mm long and 5mm long.

There are more than 30 species of Tianmen winter in China, but the most common one is a foreign species. This genus has two kinds of acquaintances, one is asparagus (Asparagus setaceus), which is often used as a small bonsai, and the other is asparagus on the dinner table, botanically called asparagus (Asparagus officinalis).

Coincidentally, the flower arrangement at the front desk of the company this week looked like a miniature pine tree, but I soon noticed that there were short thorns between its stems, just like the thorns in Africa. Did God know that I was studying Tianmeng this week, so I specially sent this one? Sure enough, the flower friend told me that this product is called Penglaisong in the florist, and its Chinese name is Asparagus macowanii, which is also a kind of native African asparagus.

Pine leaf Wuzhu, flower arrangement at the front desk of the company

Wuzhu is relative to asparagus. The nickname of prickly African Tianmen winter is African martial bamboo, also known as evergreen. African asparagus is a very popular greening plant, there are many horticultural varieties. Prickly African Myers is one of the most popular; another fox tail, also known as Asparagus densiflorus "African", has shorter leaf-shaped branches and is named after a fox.

Fox tail Tianmen winter, picture from the network

It is said that the flower language of Tianmen Winter in Africa is "the poet of seclusion". This flower language reminds me of an article I read yesterday, "Haisang: loneliness makes you look sexy." Reading the poem "my body has already fallen leaves", I was instantly moved. In the era of information overload, fast food is rampant. I haven't read such heartfelt and simple words for a long time:

Between the fields and ridges, as soon as I see wild vegetables

The wife forgot the peach blossom.

She ran over and she squatted down

This is noodles and that is shepherd's purse.

This is a flying dandelion.

Waiting for the little yellow flower to bloom.

My wife can eat in spring.

It makes people's mouth smell good.

She let the day give birth to the day.

Let the children grow up day by day

-- Haisang's wife's Spring

Haisang's experience confirms the words of Japanese writer Kao Zhong Kenichi: "only when life is hard can you have the texture of being really alive." He has a poem called "I have enough time to eat an apple". I like it very much and borrowed it to make the title of this article.

After reposting this article to the moments, the old friend said, "you still have a place for poetry in your life." In retrospect, my relationship with poetry also went through several stages.

When he was young, he was keen on reading poetry, pretending to be a literary youth, and setting up a literary club with his classmates. in fact, it is a typical teenager who does not know the taste of sorrow and says sorrow for Fu Xin ci. Later, energy is increasingly involved by reality, and I once thought that poetry was of any use. Young people in literature and art are simply synonymous with unreliable people, consciously drifting away and drawing a clear line.

Later, I do not know from which moment, the poem quietly returned to life. Do not deliberately look for, but there are always one or two sentences, read, into the heart, just like daily trivial moments are highlighted. Poetry is a trivial and mediocre day to store essence. Like frosting on a cake, it is a drop of sweetness chiseled out of a stubborn stone.

Among my friends, there are experienced poetry writers, and more of their lives and careers have nothing to do with poetry at all. But recently, I have found that many casual moments are very poetic. This fully proves that poetry is not in the distance, but in daily life.

A reclusive poet

Explain the name

The scientific name of the genus Asparagus comes from the Greek word asparagos asparagus, and the addition word densiflorus means dense flowers. The variety sprengeri is named after Herr Sprenger, who was hired by the Italian seed company Dammann in the late 18th century to collect plants in Natal province, South Africa.

The article and plant pictures (except for the origin) are all original by the author.

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