I know that I haven't done any Photo Friday thing for forever, but when I saw that the prompt was 'pink' I just couldn't help myself.
First of all, I just love pink.
Secondly, I have this awesome-cool plant with Dr. Seuss-like pink flowers growing in my kitchen and I just love the chance to show it off.
I say Dr. Seuss-like because the flowers grow out of the center of the flower below it. Weird and wonderful.
Actually, they are not flowers at all, officially, but bracts. Who is the joy-killer that had to assign the word bract to a perfectly good flower-like object? Some high-flying botanist/fuddy-duddy, not doubt...
Anyway, I went on the web to find out what this marvie plant is, exactly. It is called a 'crown of thorns' (it does have a thick thorny stem); latin name Euphorbia milii. It is from Madagascar.
Euphorbus was the Greek physician of King Juba II (approx. 50 BC to 19 AD) of Numidia (now Algeria). King Juba is the first to have cultivated the plant and he named it after his physician. Odd, since the when you cut the stem, the 'latex' that drips out is poisonous, and was used on poisoned arrows or to stupify fish (I assume one put this stuff in the water with the fish...anyone?). Anyway, more than you wanted to know but still wonderful stuff.
I have had this plant for about 3 years and it blooms continuously. Really. I forget to water it and voila, tortured plant = happy, blooming plant. This is about the only kind of houseplant that can survive around me. I kill everything else. Odd, since my outdoor garden is quite nice and does not consider me an assassin.
Ah well, Pink...
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