Heavy Plant Crossing
Searching around for inspiration for today’s post, I flicked through my photos to see what might inspire. I found some shots I took in Yialos the other day and saw that I must have been in a plant mood. I know very little about plants, except that heavy ones cross roads, which is something rather alarming. I was thinking of those signs I used to see by the side of roads the road, ‘Warning, heavy plant crossing.’ I always thought of triffids when I saw that and imagined great cumbersome things with stalks ten-foot-high lumbering across in front of me. I never saw them, and so spent years wondering what kind of heavy plants were able to wander about at will.
The ones I saw in Yialos were varied; what I assume are dates on a palm, something pink with long leaves, a creeper of some sort covering a building, and a wide variety outside the Symi Flower shop in the back street. In our courtyard we have a pink thing that grows when it feels like it, a ‘Jenni’ plant that has red flowers on occasion, a something else recovering from a locust attack last winter/spring, and a spikey thing that I say ‘Allo!’ to because I think it’s an Aloe plant. I decided against calling his one Vera, as that’s too cliché, so I just say ‘Allo’ and leave it at that. There’s also chilli plant that, since I moved it to a north facing wall, seems to prefer being chilly itself; it’s’ doing much better. There’s also a vine that does very little apart from drop dead leaves.
We do have a tree next door which, at this time of year, drops a snowfall of white seeds (I guess) that get everywhere; in the house, in the courtyard, up your nose, and there’s the immortal fig tree in front. That’s about it for my plant knowledge. I’m going to go outside now and make sure none of ours are lumbering across the lane outside on their way to a heavy plant party or anything.
