Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Mazus

Even when it's quite visible to the eyes that the delicate plant is very small itself and hardly grows tall to spoil the beauty of the lawns why is it that it is cruelly yanked off. Hardly 6-8 cm high that's max it can attain above the ground. 
Oh Mazus my Mazus i keep muttering within my breath ever since Guru has introduced me to this PYT. ( Pretty young thing). And i say this with the same love and emotions as Juliet would've said to Romeo...
Letting the 'a' linger a wee bit longer...Maazus that's the way i call this which decorates the base of most of my plant pots on the terrace now.
Wondering about my Guru...pls don't do but what you can do is to check out my blog http://shivanidiwani64.blogspot.in/2015/02/guru-nikon-buch-bucha-aka-chickweed-and.html

Well as promised this is the next in the series.
 Mazus japonica. Tiny white and purple flowers found mostly in damp places.
i often imagine them in wide open green lawns. But then who let's them be. And worst still how many of us really care to stop bend and caress the PYThings.
For generally we humans we want our lawns to be just the plain without- anything- in- it green.
i imagine them dotting the green looking like embroidery. An embroidery having all my favorite colors. White with all hues and shades of the color purple against the lush velvety green.
" The mazus is found all over the northern plains and in the hills to about a height of 1500m. where it flowers in summer. In the plains it flowers in the winter, though some flowers can be found the year around. It is a great favourite with honey bees. In January when not many annuals are in bloom they look to the mazus flower dotting the grass, for nectar." arvindguptatoys.com
i think i saw something shining and wanted to believe that it's the nectar that bees take and maybe Guru was showing me some...and somehow got reminded of the Snapdragon flower looking deeply at that drop which shone like wet liquid. What made me think of the Snapdragon was the entire structure of the flower having those upper and lower lips...the bumps...slopes and definitely that deep deep gullet where that wetness shone.
After much reading i have also learnt that Mazus my Maazus does actually belong to the Dogflower family and that is after all a cousin of the Snapdragon/ Dogflower it so much reminded me of. 
Also from the same arvindgupta.com i also learnt that an infusion of Mazus is used to tone up the system. What it thus informed that this tiny plant again has medicinal importance and hence of considerable significance for us the green- lawn- without- anything- in- it- loving- Homo sapiens.
As for me i like Mazus where ever i can spot them. In the lawns around the damp corners, at the bed of the hedges, pavements, pots...
With or without their fellow compatriots Common Sorrel and a host of other which are perhaps tinier than my own Mazus itself. But then i am one diwanee who is crazy for what many others are not.
i am hoping that through blogging i might find my tribe...but i wouldn't be much worried about that either although it would delight me to meet a few who are diwanee or diwanaa like me.

One particular aspect about Sorrel though and how Mazus is special. Whereas Sorrel needs the full sunlight to show it's open bright shining face to you Mazus does not. It waits for it's natural growth from bud to the flower and then blooms even before mid morning sometimes even before sunrise. 
i guess that should make it a favorite then for photo taking late starter freaks like me who can take some clear pictures in the Golden Hour of a clear full bloom. 

And like they would say in Delhi lingo...


...for Mazus this time... Guru tussi great ho ! 

i needn't once again say that every time i see a flower any flower i get reminded also of Wordsworth the poet...this time from his ' Daffodils '
      " ...  I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
                                                                    What wealth the show to me had brought: ..."






1 comment:

  1. After reading yr post went out see and voila these are all over the lawn.yr research work on snapdragon is commendable.grateful to u for introducing to Mazus and letting us know its worth.Your shots were brilliant.

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