Panegyric. There’s a word that’s not used much anymore. Elaborate public praise. A formal composition intended as a compliment.
Botany
Helicodiceros muscivorus, or dead-horse arum • Photo by emmapatsie (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Love vine at work • Photo by Forest & Kim Starr (CC BY 3.0)
Bahamian love vines cling and you can’t let them go
OK, so it’s Valentine’s Week. I’ve just spent a week pulling love vine out of the garden and I’m not feeling very romantic.
A hummingbird helps to pollinate a cardinal flower • Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on Unsplash
The colors of the seamless web
My field guide calls the cardinal flower “bright red.” Those simple words inadequately describe the cardinal flower’s electric presence in the ditch. Scarlet? Vermilion? Not enough pizazz.
Photo by Tom Raymo
Mrs. Dana’s guided tour
The first wildflowers of the spring are small, inconspicuously colored, and inclined to bashfulness. The wood anemone and starflower, two of my favorites, unfold their blossoms tentatively, as if testing the temper of the air. They hesitate in woody shadows, like young ballerinas waiting in the wings for some more-colorful prima donna to take the stage.