May 21, Stink Lily
Almanac for Post Moderns
Peattie’s Almanac foreshadows much of our more northern Nature. His “preface” of the unfolding around us allows me to anticipate blooming and arrivals, sometimes by a week or more. This creates a “settling in”. His words provide context, prepare the story as it relates to the arc of the sun or of blooming ariods.
Cala Lily, Jack in the Pulpit are familiar ‘spathe and spadix’ flowering plants. His entry today notes they are all in bloom. Here, my wife planted Cala Lilies earlier this week. Our three year old Dracunculus vulgaris, another aroid, is just now revealing its sheathed spadix. Called Dragonwort and Stink Lily, it can turn anticipation into disgusted fascination — its scent: rotting meat; its pollinators: flies.
Anticipating its bloom is not like dressing for a funeral; although, there is a slight cast of gravitas. Is it Peattie’s presage that gives our Dragon Arum room to breathe? Or, is it that numerous lilies are now connected, whether through bees or flies, aroma or stench? Though the vibe in my chest seems linked to dread — that’s just cultural residue, and so much comic human pomp.
