My bestie S. and I took a little trip to the 'big city' the other day. S. had a few errands and then we went grocery shopping. It was a great treat for me to go shopping with a companion. It's a LOT more fun. But I didn't know just how much fun it was going to be until we went to the dump.
I had never been to the dump in its 'new' place. They closed the dump in the valley many years ago. Anyway, S. had a bicycle to get rid of, so we drove to the far end which was up a hill and around the corner and added it to the enormous pile of old lawn mowers, air conditioners and refrigerators. On the way out, we passed a large area where you can dump lawn trimmings and tree branches and anything that would burn. While going by, S. spied something amazing.
There in the midst of several heaps of partially burned charcoal and ashes was a plant with the most stunning white flowers blooming away like an exotic specimen in a botanical garden. You never saw anything so incongruous in your life.
Now S. is our resident plant expert, but even * I * knew that we were looking at a Datura plant. I have never seen one in person in my whole life. She stopped the truck immediately and we flew out the doors and scrambled over the ash heaps to get a real look at it. Actually, there were two of them.
I could hardly believe what we were looking at! This stand was at least 8 feet across I would guess.
The flowers are probably six inches wide.
The whiteness of them is profound.
Now the thing about Datura is that it is extremely toxic, as you can read in the Wiki link. Though it's such a shame that something this beautiful can kill you outright, with a list of alarming symptoms that gives you chills just to read about them.
The plant has many names.
Jimsonweed, Thornapples, Madapple, Moonflower, Hell's Bells, and Devil's Trumpet.
Knowing the last two names on that list brings us to an ironical aspect of our discovery. Just a few feet away from this plant, there was a tendril of smoke emanating from one of the ash heaps. Thus, giving credence to the assumption that this plant emerges from the Underworld.
Just nearby was another stand of them, not quite as spectacular in size.
It was a curious and comforting thing to note that there were also several sunflowers growing in this unlikely place. Maybe to represent angelic forces that were keeping an eye on these ominous, yet beautiful specimens to make sure they didn't get up to any mischief.
It all goes to show you, you never know what you might find at the dump.
