Backyard and Beyond

Starting out from Brooklyn, an amateur naturalist explores our world.

As John Burroughs said, “The place to observe nature is where you are.”

Natural Object: Poppy

Sweet dreams are made of this — well, they might be if this was that kind — a poppy seed capsule/pod that managed to survive the winter in the garden of friends in Windsor Terrace.

Meanwhile, let’s go walking with Thomas De Quincey:

Some of these rambles led me to great distances; for an opium-eater is too happy to observe the motions of time. And sometimes in my attempts to steer homewards, upon nautical principles, by fixing my eye on the pole-star, and seeking ambitiously for a north-west passage, instead of circumnavigating all the capes and headlands I had doubled in my outward voyage, I came suddenly upon such knotty problems of alleys, such enigmatical entries, and such sphinx’s riddles of streets without thoroughfares, as must, I conceive, baffle the audacity of porters, and confound the intellects of hackney-coachmen.

UPDATE: Check out my Brooklyn neighbor and NYCWW-founder Mariella Anzelone’s NYTimes Op-Art today on the vanished wildflowers of New York City, with scumptious illustrations by Wendy Hollender.

mthew

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4 responses to “Natural Object: Poppy”

  1. Katie

    That’s a beautiful photo. So, have you seen the small yellow lady’s slipper (pic 6 of 12 in your link) where you live?

    Reply
    1. mthew

      In the late afternoon, explaining the picture to someone, I realized that it’s upside down. So let’s think of it as art and not botanically correct.

      I have not seen the yellow lady’s slipper, alas.

      Reply
    2. mthew

      I mis-spoke. I have seen pink lady slippers. Not in NYC, but in southern New Hampshire https://matthewwills.com/2010/06/14/my-ladys-slippers/

      Reply
  2. Katie

    Doh! I should have read your link a little closer. The small yellow lady’s slipper hasn’t been seen since 1886. Nice shots of the pink lady’s slipper! I’ve only ever seen one lady’s slipper while on a tour in northeast Ohio. The reserve managers were hesitant to even show it to us for fear it would be collected. I can’t remember the species now, but it was white on top and pink below and much larger than I imagined it would be.

    Reply

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