今早(8/2)摘下了这十二朵凋谢的昙花，花谢的样子一如含苞待放时，鼓囊囊的白色花苞被一根根暗红色的丝带包裹着，优雅端庄。昙花不愧是夜之皇后，花开是美，花谢依然是美，一种宁静的美 （a sense of serenity)。人生如能"生如夏花之绚烂，死如昙花凋谢时之静美"，亦是脱俗美好。
看图，借用Oncemm取的创意名字: 金陵十三钗 (其中一釵是7/31晚开的)
所以，这图中的金陵十二钗是齐头并进，同心协力开在8/1的夜间:)
再来一张，自己甚至觉得这花凋零时的样子美过盛开之时。
8/3早上摘的最后八朵 Though its flower season may have come to an end, the beauty is there to behold.
最后八朵挂在枝上凋谢后的倩影
盛开时的样子。 网友沈香说的是，昙花美在它的晶莹剔透， 这样如丝绸般光滑的叶瓣又是火龙果花瓣所没有的。 When more than a dozen layered creamy petals fully spread out，its beauty is breathtaking, which then is commensurated with a pungent fragrance wafting in the night air. Dotted in the middle tube-like opening are a few yellow-tipped pollens, adding a sense of tenderness.
侧面，花蕊看得更清楚些: Sensor-like sigma.
七月的最后一天，中午竟然下起了毛毛雨。雨点滴落在枝条上，very refreshing。The day before Lady Cereus blooms, their hanging buds all reared the heads like a U-shaped hook.
这是夭折的花苞，颜色特别红 An utra-red color bud however withered and dropped to the ground.
下图中靠右特别红的花蕾后来坠落了，让人想起回光返照。As 20-ish buds compete for nutrition, two failingly dropped dead.
The Queen of the Night flower is never a queen in my eyes. Some people confuse it with dragon fruit flower, as both blooming at night and having similar white arrow-shaped petals. To me, Queen of the Night, though its name connotes some highness, cannot rival a dragon fruit flower, whose flower predates a fruit. Queen of the Night may be showy for a few fleeting hours, but it withers without leaving any offspring. :))
Under this illusion, scant attention was paid to the night-blooming Cereus. Until one day I read a fairy tale about the origin of Lady Cereus-- a flower goddess awaiting her lover, a monk, to descend from the temple in the mountain and see her. The myth goes that for decades, the goddess collects all herself to flower in late spring, as she knows that is the time the monk will likely come by for morning dew. But the monk, who is made to forget her, is only mesmerized by Buddhist scriptures, not her beauty. However otherworldly ethereal Lady Cereus may appear, the monk never turns his eyes upon her.
The ending is a happy one, like most Chinese myths. To me, it is an awakening call of my ignorance. As my attitude changes and more attentions directed towards her, there come along her luminous bursts that outperform any year in the past.
回复 '7grizzly' 的评论 : Thanks, my friend. I was buying some vegetables delivered locally by a farm, when I saw your comment. Thanks for reading and commenting. The spelling was wrong as I checked again. It is actually "cereus":))) Thanks, my friend, for pointing it out. Have a great week!
