There will always be flowers for those who want to see them.
Henri Matisse
Flowers have accompanied human beings for thousands of years – as have their ghosts. Its clinging, almost ubiquitous presence has shown a remarkable ability to evoke sensations and feelings, to awaken rites or to simply spice up existence. But as much as we have been historically intimate with them, their diversity is such that they may never cease to amaze us.
The glass flower (Diphylleia grayi), also called the skeleton flower, is a perfect example of the latter. Originally from mountainous regions of Japan and China, it boasts an insinuating quality: when in contact with water it becomes translucent; later, when it dries, it recovers its white coverage. This elegant dynamic has understandably earned it a special place in the floral imagination.
The Diphylleia grayi reach around 40 centimeters in height, and in addition to the whiteness or transparency of their flowers, they stand out for the breadth of the umbrella-shaped leaves that surround their stems.
As is often the case with the most precious jewels of any treasure, the crystal flower is particularly protected -since it only grows in areas of extreme cold-, which makes it difficult to have an encounter with it. But apart from the fact that most of us will perhaps leave this world without having come into contact with a Diphylleia grayi, its mere existence, still distant, is a beautiful reminder: nature reaches almost inconceivable degrees of delicacy and generously offers us its endless repertoire of delicacies.
We human beings share the path with flowers and ghosts, with northern lights or suggestive rock formations; in return, we just have to open ourselves to perceive them and, then, life will not be the same. We are lucky.
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