Spotted this during a walk. See, do as the English do, go for walks. They’re such naturalists. But I digress. Google tells me this belongs to a genus of shrubs and trees from Australia known as bottlebrushes. Which is totally apt–they do look like bottlebrushes!
I was an early bird today.
Inside houses, people were dressing to go to work. Grabbing a mug of coffee and biscuit. Yanking up their socks. Powdering noses.
A woman in shorts was huffing about in circles around the playground.
A man was flipping through the newspaper in the gazebo.
Birds were making unidentifiable noises.
Then I spied this…
Don’t they look queer, like droopy trumpets?
Shimmied up to take a closer look.
The petals are a flared skirt, and I’m peering from below.
Anyway, I googled and realised trumpet flowers are poisonous.
The leaves and flowers of the plant contain chemicals (solanine, solanidine) which are highly toxic. Ingestion of sufficient flowers and leaves can result in death.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you, itchy fingers.
Basil has purple flowers. There’re different varieties I think. This one has purple flowers. It’s a common ingredient in Thai cooking.
