Glory be to this Pea

Ahh it feels so nice to be back again...
Straight to my nature find story...
i was waiting in the car as my husband walked into this corporate office of the famous builders in the city. Delhi is getting warmer day by day and besides the landscaping outside was just too breathtaking with a rich healthy- well- looked -after -variety to hold a garden enthusiast like me inside the car. And thus i walked out...and as i stepped out the first thing i saw...i had never seen before. And today it's only about that.

The flower looking strange...exotic...never seen before was right in front of me. It was in a container...a pot and there was just a single pot. Although the flower was a stunning blood red yet something was not right about the health of the plant. It was in sharp contrast to it's surroundings. Something pale and droopy ...something sick about the way the foliage looked...and because it was kept beneath a tree on that divider that separates the driveway from the parking lot i assumed it was purposely put there to get back some air and some nourishment. Perhaps the exotic was indoors in the plush reception area...

More perusal and thus more shots...luck favored me this time for i had my camera on me...in my smartphone...blessed technology i say.

Oh what a strange design...curves that tapered to a pointed like a needle tip...and a center that bulged with a glistening- like- raspberry- jelly- black- blob of a dot...and as if this was not all...

The needle like tip had hints of pure white...as if the artist had put His or Her final touches to the masterpiece. It was extremely engrossing this flower...and it could be because i was seeing it for the first time but definitely there was something very appealing about it's designing...just like the orchids...so i went as close as my eyes or the zoom could go...

Found the delicate veins...the dividing lines in the sepals and definitely the most attractive the protruding shining dark blob dots...

i looked anxiously for the gardener to help me know the name of this complex but stunningly beautiful flower. Had to walk around the campus. i found two guys watering a bed of lovely Petunias and requested them to ID the plant for me. Happily he said, " Maidam yeh geranium hai lekin iska seazon ab chala gaya..."(Madam this is Geranium but the season for this is over...)

 he went on and cruelly yanked off the lone pod which housed the precious seeds and crushed it in his hands. At that moment i did not like that man. Generally i respect gardeners but this type of gardener...is not my type.

(Madam this is Geranium but the season for this is over...)

i sat in the car...not angry but brooding over the fact that if the guy didn't know it what pleasure did it give him to pass me the wrong information. Perhaps it gave a kick to his ego by giving a wrong answer. But by being honest and saying , '' Madam i don't know" his ego would have deflated. And why the hell did he yank off the pod...what was the poor poor single pod doing to his ego. The pod didn't ask him the question i did...

Ego...uff...let's concentrate on the flower...perhaps...internet... 

Late in the night when Mr Google exhausted me it was ironical that when one Indian fellowman gave me gas it was another Indian website that gave me the ID. And that website is now like my encyclopedia when i have to know about any new flower i come across. http://flowersofindia.net/

And that's how i came to know all that i needed to know for the moment about the flower.

-commonly known as Glory Pea

- That it is also called Strut's Desert Pea.

-Swainsona formosa botanical name

-That it is a kind of a wildflower...

-that red with a black spot is known as the black boss

-also the state floral emblem of South Australia.

That's all for this day today...some aboriginal story too that i learnt about this flower but that in my next post...till then...stay put and pls pls don't give up on me...