Everything comes to an end, but the end can last for a long time
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The past four posts have shown you Centaurea americana in various stages. Now this last picture in the miniseries shows you the desiccated remains of a basket-flower seed head. This stage can endure for months, even through the winter and into the following year. The chaff that fills the “basket” remains softer than you might expect for something that’s dried out.
Date: June 13. Place: a ditch on the east side of Burnet Rd. just south of the old Merrilltown Cemetery.
© 2013 Steven Schwartzman
Here’s an unexpected memory. We usually had Sunday dinner with my grandparents in a little town about 30 miles from our home. One week, we arrived to find Grandma sitting on the porch talking with friends. Two of them were very old, very wrinkled. Apparently they scared me. I asked my dad, “Are they alive?” He assured me they were – they may have looked dead, but they were very much alive.
I was so young I barely remember the incident, but it was one of those tales my folks told and retold. In her last couple of decades, Mom often would say, “Just remember – I may be drying out, but I’m still soft on the inside!” The analogy’s not perfect, but the memory’s as lovely as the basket-flower.
shoreacres
June 16, 2013 at 7:14 AM
That’s a great line from your mother, and one I’m happy to find this picture of a dry basket-flower drew out of you. Thanks for telling the tale.
Steve Schwartzman
June 16, 2013 at 7:25 AM
What a lovely memory! Brought me such a smile.
Gallivanta
September 5, 2020 at 3:58 AM
And Linda will be surprised to find you commenting about it seven years later.
Steve Schwartzman
September 5, 2020 at 5:34 AM
She certainly was!
shoreacres
September 5, 2020 at 5:53 AM
It would be even more surprising if she commented today about a post of yours seven years in the future rather than the past.
Steve Schwartzman
September 5, 2020 at 6:24 AM
I am even surprised myself.
Gallivanta
September 5, 2020 at 6:47 AM
Lots of good things are waiting to be rediscovered in the past.
Steve Schwartzman
September 5, 2020 at 7:01 AM
I agree.
Gallivanta
September 5, 2020 at 7:04 AM
That’s why I’m fond of looking through old books. You never know what interesting things you’ll find.
Steve Schwartzman
September 5, 2020 at 8:54 AM
Un portrait bien mis en valeur.
Pierre
June 17, 2013 at 1:17 AM
Merci, Pierre. Je suis content que tu emploies le mot portrait.
Steve Schwartzman
June 17, 2013 at 6:09 AM
This last gasp, still lovely.
Mary Mageau
June 17, 2013 at 2:33 AM
That’s certainly how I find this final stage, and I’m glad you do, too.
Steve Schwartzman
June 17, 2013 at 6:10 AM
I always love your series, and it is wonderful when the last stage can last as long as this, isn’t it?
Susan Scheid
June 22, 2013 at 10:51 AM
It is, S.S., it is.
Steve Schwartzman
June 22, 2013 at 10:55 AM
The basket flower seed head reminds me of the dried artichoke head which I have in my garden each year. https://www.pikist.com/free-photo-ssiuo
Gallivanta
September 5, 2020 at 4:03 AM
That is quite a resemblance. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised, given that botanists classify both the basket-flower and the artichoke in the thistle subfamily of the sunflower family.
Steve Schwartzman
September 5, 2020 at 5:41 AM
Ah, I thought there might be some family connection but I didn’t have time to look it up. Thank you.
Gallivanta
September 5, 2020 at 6:42 AM
Some people used to refer to the basket-flower as “shaving brush,” presumably based on the dry stage shown in this post. And to give equal time to the female side, this wildflower was once also called “powder puff,” presumably based on the flowering stage. I wonder if anyone ever used either name for an artichoke.
Steve Schwartzman
September 5, 2020 at 6:58 AM
Somebody came close: Wild relatives of the cultivated artichoke are common in Jordan and often have horrific prickles on the flower head three centimeters long. These discouraged me from testing the culinary value of the plant! When young, the flower heads of the wild artichoke resemble an old fashioned shaving brush giving it one of its common names in Arabic, “The donkey’s shaving brush” because of its armor. https://ww2.odu.edu/~lmusselm/plant/bible/thistles.php
Gallivanta
September 5, 2020 at 7:14 AM
How about that commonality in cultures so far apart.
I like the sound of “thickets of thistles” in the article.
Steve Schwartzman
September 5, 2020 at 8:53 AM