The Dinosaur Flowers
Getting in a pickle about weird stamens
Magnolias are a contradiction in time. They bloom for a few weeks at the start of spring, then they die. You suddenly see them, everywhere, or at least where people have the space for a tree. Because they are the first trees to flower around here, they dominate with their work-of-art flowers. Then the flowers die, and the trees (left with just their bland leaves), shrink away. From extroverts to introverts, from celebrities to has-beens. The magnolia tree has been carrying on like this for at least 100 million years. They shared ancient Cretaceous landscapes with T-Rex, and many other long extinct creatures.
This isn’t a lesson in palaeontology. I just wanted to share some images from this spring we are in.
Magnolia flowers have large and strange stamens, and they still do, because in dinosaur times the bees did not yet exist, so dinosaurs had no honey, and prehistoric beetles crawled into the flowers at night to do the job of pollinating. I didn’t know that, but I’ve been telling a lot of unfortunate people ever since. Also, the flowers make a delicious, spicy, gingery pickle. (recipe below).
A lot changes on this planet in quick time: history, religion, weather, species, war and beach fashions. I can’t say magnolias have seen many things, but they have stood and flowered amongst them for countless full moons.
Is flower photography a thing? Robert Mapplethorpe made them fine art, and magic examples of what AnOther magazine called his “doubleness”. The magnolia stands silent, while many cultures attach a dizzying variety of meanings to it. In Japan the flowers represent dignity. In China they portray purity, and in traditional medicine the bark aids sleep. In the USA the flowers say luck and stability, and it is the state flower of Mississippi and Louisiana. JG Ballard wrote of magnolias in Dr Miriam St Cloud’s hair in The Unlimited Dream Company. JJ Cale and others wrote songs.
But back to reality, here are a few shots of magnolias before they vanished, until next Spring.
In a local church, people choose to place their ashes with the fallen petals.
A tasty pickle
A delightful piece about the wondrous magnolia tree, it's petals and flowers, accompanied by fab pics.
I like to believe Magnolias are my totem plant. This was shattered somewhat after planting and killing two of them. I still love them though and when they bloom in Sydney it’s magic.