Erica cerinthoides colours

This Erica cerinthoides branch presents four colours contributing to the plant’s appearance: red on stem-tip corollas, purple on calyces and pedicels behind them, green on leaves variously whorled around the stems, and beige to white on stems that may be hairy when young on some populations.

Shape adds to colour in projecting identity. So does size. And so does time, showing growth, seasonal changes and life stages. The miracle of how all this comes about, how life happens, hides in plain sight in the living organism.

There is always more story to tell, or silence to prevail as we look at the world (Manning and Helme, 2024; Curtis-Scott, et al, 2020; iNaturalist).