Unassuming Green. Lithospermum officinale, European Stoneseed, and Honeybee, Apis mellifera, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
'No, I don't really care that most people walk past me to the Bright Colors of other plants. I suppose I'm rather drab and uninteresting with my small, yellowish flowers and an abundance of green foliage. But there's something to be said for not being fawned over, and nobody stands in my Sunlight.
My official name is quite boring, too: Lithospermum, literally Stoneseed and also Gromwell. Now be honest: would you like to be called 'Gromwell'? People don't realise how pretty my little seeds are. Each of my flowers yields four amazingly white and very hard oval-shaped seeds. It's after those seeds that I'm sometimes called Pearl Plant or in Dutch even 'Glad Parelzaad' (Smooth Pearl Seed), and the French and Germans give me similar names.
Indeed, I have little practical use, I suppose much like decorative Sea Pearls. In the past I've been used by 'nature medicine' to drive out kidney and bladder stones but as far as I'm aware no longer. So that leaves one thing: my nectar is sought after by my pollinating friends, the Honeybees, Apis mellifera. Other creatures may pass me by without as much as a glance, Honeybee is Sweet Company.'
Unassuming Green. Lithospermum officinale, European Stoneseed, and Honeybee, Apis mellifera, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
'No, I don't really care that most people walk past me to the Bright Colors of other plants. I suppose I'm rather drab and uninteresting with my small, yellowish flowers and an abundance of green foliage. But there's something to be said for not being fawned over, and nobody stands in my Sunlight.
My official name is quite boring, too: Lithospermum, literally Stoneseed and also Gromwell. Now be honest: would you like to be called 'Gromwell'? People don't realise how pretty my little seeds are. Each of my flowers yields four amazingly white and very hard oval-shaped seeds. It's after those seeds that I'm sometimes called Pearl Plant or in Dutch even 'Glad Parelzaad' (Smooth Pearl Seed), and the French and Germans give me similar names.
Indeed, I have little practical use, I suppose much like decorative Sea Pearls. In the past I've been used by 'nature medicine' to drive out kidney and bladder stones but as far as I'm aware no longer. So that leaves one thing: my nectar is sought after by my pollinating friends, the Honeybees, Apis mellifera. Other creatures may pass me by without as much as a glance, Honeybee is Sweet Company.'