Mauve Lightning. Lady's Smock, Cardamine pratensis, Hoornsedijk, Groningen, The Netherlands
A very little bit of blue in otherwise dark gray and rainy skies. It lit up a large patch of Cardamine pratensis, Lady's Smock or Cuckoo Flower, blowing mauve in a field full of Dandelions just off the Hoornsedijk a few kms south of Groningen. In the fierce and chilly wind strafing off the Lake a sudden lull long enough for a photo.
Cardamine as a name for this Cress goes back at least on Pedanius Dioscorides (c.40-90 CE), famed pharmacologist, botanist and physician of Late Antiquity. That name is of course connected to Kardamon, a spice plant from Indian Asia. The leaves of Lady's Smock are indeed a bit spicy and can be used nicely in a Spring Salad.
It tastes a bit like Nasturtium leaves that I recall from the lunch tables of my youth. I suppose that such salads had best be eaten at a picknick table outside. In some European folklore, notably in Germany, Cuckoo Flower shouldn't be brought indoors for that would be asking for lightning to strike...
Maybe that holds for photos too, for there was a clap of thunder as I was cropping this picture...
Mauve Lightning. Lady's Smock, Cardamine pratensis, Hoornsedijk, Groningen, The Netherlands
A very little bit of blue in otherwise dark gray and rainy skies. It lit up a large patch of Cardamine pratensis, Lady's Smock or Cuckoo Flower, blowing mauve in a field full of Dandelions just off the Hoornsedijk a few kms south of Groningen. In the fierce and chilly wind strafing off the Lake a sudden lull long enough for a photo.
Cardamine as a name for this Cress goes back at least on Pedanius Dioscorides (c.40-90 CE), famed pharmacologist, botanist and physician of Late Antiquity. That name is of course connected to Kardamon, a spice plant from Indian Asia. The leaves of Lady's Smock are indeed a bit spicy and can be used nicely in a Spring Salad.
It tastes a bit like Nasturtium leaves that I recall from the lunch tables of my youth. I suppose that such salads had best be eaten at a picknick table outside. In some European folklore, notably in Germany, Cuckoo Flower shouldn't be brought indoors for that would be asking for lightning to strike...
Maybe that holds for photos too, for there was a clap of thunder as I was cropping this picture...