The eternal reflection of a narcissistic life

"I weep for Narcissus, but I never noticed that Narcissus was beautiful. I weep because, each time he knelt beside my banks, I could see, in the depths of his eyes, my own beauty reflected."

– Oscar Wilde

The legend of Narcissus is a very well known Greek myth and as the Greeks have accustoming us, this one is another beautiful and tragic story.

Narcissus was a handsome young man, which used to go hunting to the woods. One day a nymph named Echo saw Narcissus and immediately fell in love, however due to the curse that goddess Hera casted on her, Echo was not able to speak on her behalf – she could only speak by repeating what others had said, so she could not explain the love she had for the young mortal. Narcissus became tired of Echo’s repeated and nonsensical words, and insulted her since he didn’t feel the same. Echo was heartbroken – big mistake Narcissus! Everyone knows that breaking a female’s heart can be of great danger, now imagine breaking a nymph’s heart – a being that has direct contact with the celestial creatures. The other nymphs thought Narcissus deserved to be punished, and Zeus agreed. Again when Narcissus was hunting, he was lead to the lake to drink some water. As soon as he bent to the pond he glimpsed his reflection in the water and fell in love with what he saw.

Echo and Narcissus, John William Waterhouse

He couldn’t do anything anymore except staring at the water and his own true love – himself! He couldn’t eat or sleep anymore, life started to leave him but not before he understood and regret his behavior with Echo. Zeus and the nymphs took pity on him, but it was already too late, they could not restore mortal life, so Narcissus body was transformed into a flower, blooming every spring with the “head” bending to the water.

Narcissus calcicola [Source: Flora-On]

It is very easy to identify the Narcissus flowers due to the presence of a corona, also commonly known as trumpet. I have mentioned this organ before, but whilst in Passiflora the corona is formed by a considerable number of needle-shape structures, Narcissus shows a petal-like structure – here the corona looks like an outer-formation of the perianth, but keep in mind that it is an independent organ and although it is fused with the perianth and is similar to it in many aspects, it is not the same thing, and it is more complex than just an outgrowth of the tepals.

Floral structures in Narcissus calcicola

Narcissus was indeed a very handsome being, but what seemed to be a bliss ended up being his curse, leading him to death. Nobody was good enough for him because nobody was at his level. He became blind with himself, focused only on his reflection – the rest of the world was a complete nothingness. Narcissus showed us in a dramatic way how important it is to respect the love from one another and that contemplation can be the solution for the problems that we keep being focused on. So do never forget, whenever you’re bending your head down, remember that the world is to be contemplated with the head up! 

The Apple of Sodom

It was another beautiful sunny day in Israel and I had decided to go outside Jerusalem to see the Dead Sea like all well behaved tourists do. Just before I get there, I have decided to walk around in that inspiring desert environment that surrounds the area, right close to Ein Gedi. After passing by a family of wild gazelles that made me company for few minutes, I stopped by a wonderful tall shrub. I was standing by a stunning member of Apocynaceae. The plant was Calotropis procera and their flowers, as usual, took the breath out of me! They were fleshy, big and colourful and the only thing I wished was to have someone with me so I could share all my thoughts about those flowers. But there was nobody passing by for as long as I stayed in the area, and the gazelles wouldn’t understand my excitement about their food, so I stay just admiring them for while. In such a harsh environment, the last thing I was expecting to find was such showy purple flowers – that shrub was just like an oasis of beauty in the desert.

On the left side: the gazelle happy family; on the right side: the shrub with the Dead Sea on the background

My astonishment was nothing but the proof of my infinite ignorance: these plants are actually quite common, especially the Dead Sea region. They are commonly called the “Apple of Sodom” because of the characters of the fruits, which are as big as apples and because of their dehiscence. The fruits are described as “exploding” or “dissolve into smoke and ashes” when you try to pluck them, possibly remembering the biblical scriptures of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. This happens only because the fruits are hollow, but unfortunately didn’t have the opportunity to see them “dissolving” on my hands as the plants were not fruiting yet. The seeds produce silky strands which can be used as wicks for oil lamps, except in Jewish Shabbat lamps, according to the Mishna. These strands may also be used as natural textile fibers for other purposes. This biblical plant, as a member of Apocynaceae, produces a toxic milky sap, so be careful while handling it!

Fruits of Calotropis procera (Source: Flowersinisrael.com)

Unfortunately I didn’t dissect any flowers, so I don’t have good pictures to show morphological characters, but I will try to make it understandable. In Asclepioideae (old Asclepiadaceae family, today a sub-family of Apocynaceae) there is a structure called gynostegium. The gynostegium is the fusion between stamens and stigma and it is only known to be found in this family, however it resembles another structure appearing in a totally different family: Orchidaceae. The structure described in Orchidaceae is the gynostemium, and is also described as the reproductive structure of Aristolochiaceae. But the difference between a gynostegium and a gynostemium is not easy to detect, it is a matter of timing of fusion during the development of the flowers. While in Orchids and Aristolochiaceae the fusion between stamens and style is congenital, in Apocynaceae the same fusion is postgenital. But the problem now is to understand the difference between congenital and postgenital fusions.

Flower detail of Calotropis procera

These terms might be confusing to explain and understand, so to make it simple I would just say that the real fusion is the postgenital fusion, as we can identify it as a fusion. In postgenital fusion the organs develop independently until a certain point where they start fusing to each other by marginal adhesion. In congenital fusion you cannot see this for the simple reason that the organs are actually growing and developing together since the beginning.

It seems sometimes that botanists like to make up random names just to make other people, but terminology is a useful tool. In this case the names are so similar that they can without a doubt become a misunderstanding problem easily! The truth is that humans try to understand Nature the best they can by inventing names to communicate with other people, share knowledge and think together. But then we have to interpret the words we’ve created to try to understand plants – at the end it seems that botanists just like to play word-games. And it is much more fun to use words hard to pronounce.