Magical refractions

After photographing droplets of rain on various plants in the garden, it was only later that I realized that I’d caught refracted images of flowers in some of the droplets. Magical or lucky – is there a difference?

This bulbine plant possesses almost magical healing properties, due to its glycoproteins, which are also found in the gel in the leaves of Aloe species, including Aloe vera. The leaf sap has been used traditionally to treat burns and other skin problems such as wounds, rashes and boils, as well to ease cracked lips, exczema and herpes. It is also used to stop bleeding and as an antidote to poison and to treat sick livestock. Commercially it is used as a moisturizer in some shampoos. Commonly referred to in English generically as the Bulbine, I am not sure if the plants in our garden are the Bulbine frutescens or the very similar Bulbine asphodeloides.

As reflected in the name, this is a bulbous plant; it has succulent leaves and bears yellow flowers on tall spikes. In the wild it occurs in grasslands, but being hardy and drought resistant as well as decorative, it has become a popular garden plant and a favourite for mass plantings by landscape gardeners.

Posted by Carol at letting nature back in

Sources: Elsa Pooley. 1998. A Field Guide to Wild Flowers of KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Region. Durban: Natal Flora Publications Trust; Ben-Erik van Wyk and Nigel Gericke. 2007. People’s Plants: A Guide to Useful Plants of Southern Africa. Pretoria: Briza.