Crassula ovata at Silvermine

This Crassula ovata plant next to the path around the dam at Silvermine in the Table Mountain National Park appears the most natural in its growing conditions of all the C. ovata plants depicted on this Site, although it may be planted. It is also unsure whether the specimen is still growing there, as there has been a devastating fire in the area since the photo was taken.

The ephemeral aspect of a living thing does not diminish its significance or beauty, as long as there are beings that value natural beauty and ascribe significance. If meaning or significance would be evenly or equally allocated to all that is, the variable in its different values would disappear. All in the environment, the reality, would be equal in significance for the beings living in it, or there would not be such a thing as significance or meaning. This is clearly not the case, as the immediate environment always holds threats and benefits for all the organisms endowed with sensory capabilities in whatever form living in it. It would induce some appropriate behaviour from the living things recognising and responding to the good and bad bits around them.

Maybe we shall one day know whether chameleons, frogs or cows admire the view for its own sake, have an aesthetic sense, or merely eat the good bits and defecate on the rest.