Deadly symmetry

Unless you have suffered with me in my futile attempts to grow my very own jimson weed/sacred datura, you could not know just how pleased I am with this healthy plant growing next the house. One year ago about this time, it was a seedling in a little 4" pot, bought at Flagstaff Native Plant & Seed. I don't know how many times I have planted seeds that I collected from different wild datura growing in the neighborhood. To no avail. Not even a hint of a new plant poking up through the soil. Imagine, then, how let down I was when this particular datura did not put out leaves as soon as the last chill was gone this spring. Oh, no, it waited. And it waited. And it waited, until sometime after the beginning of May, to show its green. Now it's a plant to be proud of. Not only that, but I've discovered an new aspect: examine the plant carefully, particularly the arrangement of the leaves. The dang specimen is bilaterally symmetrical, leaf for leaf, position for position. I first discovered this looking at the new sprouts at the center. Maybe that's why shamans and sorcerers, from Greece and the Orient all the way to the American southwest, used the datura. Not just those powerful alkaloids, but possibly the magical layout of the leaves.

By the way, don't go trying those powerful alkaloids without a shaman or sorcerer to hold your hand and guide you -- they can be nasty, even deadly. It's even a good idea for ordinary people to wash their hands right after handling any part of the plant! But those Georgia O'Keefe blossoms at dusk -- they are worth it!

Statuary: I've met a new (to me) Prescott blogger with a mission; Observations hopes to photograph a sculpture or other outdoor art object every day of the year. That's 365 works in the Prescott area. Wonder if there are that many, with or without counting the chain saw bears.