Fringecup (Tellima grandiflora)

Fringecup has heart-shaped leaves with very visible veins and ruffled edges, as well as a central slender stalk, with little green-and-pink flowerballs running closely alongside.   I really like the strange curve that occurs at midpoint; many fringecup display this.  This is just another ‘wow’ plant.  The more you ponder it, the more curious, and the more awesome it becomes.  How can there be so much beautiful diversity in the world?  Intelligent design or evolution? 

Fringecup Close-Up

The magenta frills look like spiders clinging to the green calyx, or like dendrites (the branched projections of a neuron). 

The Wood-Spirit Comes Hither

While walking through Wildflower Hollow I saw heavy white wings fluttering amongst the fringecups.  Each butterfly flew in the vicinity of a certain fringecup, but never appeared to land.  As I put the camera close to this particular fringecup to take a picture, the local spirit flew into view. 

To my eye it appeared only a flash of white, but the camera managed to capture its details.  It looks like the revivified skeleton of a miniature pterodactyl, escaped from the shrill freeze of fossil-time. 

The Fringecup's Angel of Death

For something so evanescent, there is a look of undeniable sheer solidity of luster.  There is something so palpable about it–I feel as if I could hold it cold between my thumb and forefinger–an onyx-gemmed statuette plucked from the quarry of Earth’s alabaster sepulchre, perched on the fringecup’s pubescent stem.

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