Friday Flowers: Osa Pulchra

Osa Pulchra at the Huntimgton Botanical Gardens

 Air and Angels
(By John Donne)

Twice or thrice had I loved thee,
Before I knew thy face or name;
So in a voice, so in a shapeless flame,
Angels affect us oft, and worshipped be;
     Still when, to where thou wert, I came,
Some lovely glorious nothing I did see,
     But since my soul, whose child love is,
Takes limbs of flesh, and else could nothing do,
     More subtle than the parent is
Love must not be, but take a body too,
     And therefore what thou wert, and who
          I bid love ask, and now
That it assume thy body, I allow,
And fix itself in thy lip, eye, and brow.

Whilst thus to ballast love, I thought,
And so more steadily to have gone,
With wares which would sink admiration,
I saw, I had love's pinnace overfraught,
     Every thy hair for love to work upon
Is much too much, some fitter must be sought;
     For, nor in nothing, nor in things
Extreme, and scatt'ring bright, can love inhere;
     Then as an angel, face and wings
Of air, not pure as it, yet pure doth wear,
     So thy love may be my love's sphere;
          Just such disparity
As is 'twixt air and angels' purity,
'Twixt women's love, and men's will ever be.



I've been waiting for a good opportunity to share these pretties with you all. If I had to guess, I'd have said they were white angel's trumpets, but that's totally off. These Osa Pulchras are from the coffee family (Rubiaceae).

Osa Pulchra at the Huntington Botanical Gardens



Well, they're still quite beautiful. ;-)

One of the greatest thrills to visiting the Huntington is seeing these rare plants.

Osa Pulchra from beneath.


And here's a nice vid showcasing the Botanical Gardens at the Huntington.

Oh, and we've got to celebrate the 25th anniversary since the release of Cyndi Lauper's True Colors album in 1986. Technically, we should have done this yesterday but I thought that a song about colors would fit well with our weekly flower fest. ;-)

Enjoy!!!