I live in a small oak grove, and tending that grove is part of the way that I observe the turning of the year. I spend a lot of time noting how the oaks impact my tiny world, here on the banks of the Potomac River.
And this, as most years, here at the place where the river runs past the marble city, the oaks are having sex. I mean, they are having mad, prolific, insane sex. Oak trees have the kind of sex that overwhelms the world. They literally cover my yard with the results of their sex, they cover the cars, they create huge piles of oak sex in the streets, they spend about four or five days having mad oak sex. I left this morning aware that it was happening and came home this evening to a carpet of oak sex all over my herb bed, my lawn, my woodland garden, my deck.
It happens every year, just before Beltane. I've yet to celebrate a Beltane here that didn't involve sweeping oak sex off my deck so that we could jump over candles. Tonight, after days of waiting, my woad has bloomed. The sage has blossoms all over it. Wisteria is blossoming all over the place. Violets are everywhere. The rosemary is blooming. Parsley is just sprouting.
It's Beltane!
Image here.
6 comments:
Oak secks bakes be sneeze.
Brightest blessings on Beltane!
Jan at Rosemary Cottage
Ah, i love that image of everything around us, all of a sudden, having sex like mad. Sadly, some people only notice it because the tree sperm makes them sneeze.
oops, didn't mean you, Tina! Saw your comment after I hit publish.
Ack! It's not sperm, it's pollen! They're both male gametes, but there's a difference. Sperm is motile, having flagella that move it through a liquid medium. Some plants, like ferns, do have sperm, but oaks have wind-borne pollen.
/science
yes, yes i know that it's pollen, nanoboy, but it's more fun to call it tree sperm and watch people become slightly twitchy when they realize that it's another species' gametes that are making their nose run. it's the imp of the perverse on my shoulder - sometimes i can't resist it :)
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