10 November 2024
Another nice morning with low humidity, temperature in the 70’s and a nice breeze blowing. It put a little perk in my steps during my 1.5 mile morning walk.
I passed by a house that I think belongs to someone involved with horticulture. He always has a wonderful yard with plenty of unusual stuff in bloom – stuff you would see only in a plant nursery.
One of the plants was Golden Arrow. I’ve featured this one before but the bloom was just too pretty to pass up.
You see this a lot in the neighborhood and I really do like the plant. It is another plant that belongs in the dogbane family (Apocynaceae).
The other one I passed was the first time I’ve seen it in bloom. Mostly, when I come across it, it’s in fruit. It’s Island Marlberry.
Most people don’t have this in their yard. It’s native to Florida and the Caribbean. It belongs to the primrose family (Primulaceae).
I got to thinking where I got my love of flowers. I think it was when I was living in Boyle, Mississippi where I was in the first grade (5 years old). I was ahead of the class in reading. I had already seen Spot run and I had already figured out Dick in the Dick and Jane stuff and knew he grew up to be – well, a dick.
Anyway, we lived in Mr. McCrain’s house and next door was a retired school teacher – actually quite old. Mother would go over and talk with her and pop her pimples. Apparently she had a really oily skin and had a lot of pimples in old age. Mother was an expert pimple popper.
To keep me entertained, she gave me some of her third grade handouts which were flowers and their names. She loaned me some crayons and I went to work. I began to associate the flower with the name even then. Since I was five, I probably colored outside the lines – something that persists today.
My next realization was when we moved back to Morton and I noticed Grandma Searcy’s potted geraniums and flowering quince. Then I began to notice the daffodils in spring.
My Grandmother Ruby would drive me and Mrs. Thompson around to Roosevelt State Park to see the dogwoods and redbuds in bloom. Mrs. Thompson (Nancy) dipped snuff – fairly common back then – think of the scene in Gone With the Wind. To dip snuff, she needed a toothbrush. To her, that meant a branch from a Tupelo gum (Nyssa sylvatica). It had to be the perfect branch. I spent what I thought was hours searching the park for the perfect branch. She rejected most and finally settled on one.
To make it into a “toothbrush” you chewed the end of it until it fanned out like a broom. Then while it was wet with saliva, you dipped it into the jar of snuff. The brushlike feature allowed you to get a really good dip of snuff.
I didn’t mind the dipping, the choosing the branch, or even the snuff. What I couldn’t stand was the spitting. She would carry a can with us and use that as her spittoon.
By the way, I later found out that the Tupelo gum is the first tree to change color of its leaves in the fall of the year. They turn a very bright red and you could walk through the woods in late July or early August and pick out gums from the red leaves.
Two things sealed the deal with me. Mr. Polk, our scoutmaster, had us do an exhibit on edible plants at the jamboree held at the fairgrounds in Jackson. He did all the work and had the plants mounted in Riker mounts. All we had to do was memorize the spiel for each plant. I loved it.
When I went away to Ole Miss, I took an introductory botany course with Dr. Pullen. He had put up a display of poisonous plants on herbarium sheets in the student lobby of the biology building. It fascinated me. Later as an undergraduate, I took his “Flora of Mississippi” course.
After doing my time in the U.S. Coast Guard, I decided to ask Dr. Pullen (1) if he remembered me and (2) would he accept me as a grad student. He wrote back he did indeed remember me and would be happy to have me as a graduate student. He even provided for a stipend.
As you can see, fate steered me to flowers. From there, I branched out into algae, mosses, ferns, and pretty much anything plant related. So, you will continue to be bombarded by flowers on my blog.
Stay tuned!
