Gallimaufry#53

Just a gallimaufry of photos 📷 

Ranong (Asystasia intrusa)

Candelabra tree

Lethal beauty

If a drop of the white sap from the inner tree comes into contact with the skin, a blister will form. Even breathing in the fumes causes burns, and if it gets in your eyes, it will make you blind. The poisonous sap and sharp spines are its defences against herbivores. Interestingly, the tree's milky sap can be an important source of water for Africa’s black rhinos. 🌵

Lunch — Bibimbap

Bibim in Korean translates as mixed, and bap means cooked rice.

So bibimbap literally means mixed rice.  Before eating it you’re supposed to mix everything all together.

FROM THE TRAVEL ARCHIVES

Engelberg 2019

WHEN A ROSE IS NOT A ROSE ...

I was taking an evening stroll in the park in my neck of the woods when I stumbled upon this curious beauty that resembled a rose. Just as I was about to zoom in on the bloom with my phone, it started to drizzle. I sprinted home just in time to escape the full fury of the monsoon rain.

When I returned to the park the next morning, I found a white flower on the shrub instead!

Hmmm, was I more demented than I thought, or was the shrub messing with me?

I had no idea what the flower was, so Google Lens to the rescue! Turned out, it was a Confederate rose (hibiscus mutabillis), technically a species of hibiscus with the unique property of changing color throughout the day. The bloom opens in the morning as a beautiful white or a subtle pink, and gradually darkens during the course of the day. By evening, the petals of the Confederate rose typically achieve a deep red appearance.

Time-lapse photos by Vinayaraj @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Vinayaraj

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Its name is steeped in legend. As the story goes, a wounded Confederate soldier laid bleeding upon  a white-flowering bush for two days and stained its blossoms red, or dark pink, with his blood before dying.

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 Over a period of two days, the Confederate rose gradually turned from white to a purplish pink before wilting.

The Drop" Be the drop that freely falls and becomes one with water ...

  You might not be able to perceive the ripples you have created right away,

  but water will allow you to feel how their love

  comes back to you again and again."                                   Author unknown