THE DARK SIDE OF BEAUTY

 

My friend called me and told me that while he was walking in the forest he had found a marsh/swamp with sundews. I went there with the hope of finding a few plants and imagine how surprised I was when I saw a sundews "meadow". Not a few, but thousands - if not millions.

My joy was even greater because I had never seen sundew in the wild before.

I only had an idea of it from photos and... from gardening stores.

The reality exceeded my expectations. I was completely enchanted by them and I tried to show them in the photos. Without a close look at them, we are not able to see their beauty.

Of course, this beauty has its dark side. Sundew is insectivorous - it attracts insects which... are "eaten" by it. Well, it is not "eating" in our understanding - when an insect sticks to the plant (a special secretion serves this purpose), the plant begins to secrete digestive enzymes that break down the victim. Because they grow in soil poor in nutrients, it's a way to supplement for the lack of necessary elements.

I don't know which species it is - I found that there are three (some say four) in Poland.

My friend Wojciech – whom I introduced during my trip to Nysa Kłodzka in the entry SPRING ON THE NYSA KŁODZKA  suspects that it is Drosera intermedia, commonly known as the oblong-leaved sundew

No matter what it is, it is still beautiful.

Take a look for yourself.

I was most impressed by the dragonfly, which, despite the fact that it was dead, looked beautiful - I know that nature is designed in such a way that someone has to die so that another can live, but it doesn't change the fact that in such cases I simply feel sorry for it.

I have a big empathy for the natural world and maybe that's where this feeling comes from.

Well - as Haruki Murakami wrote in the book Norwegian Wood - "death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it", but.. it is a pity......

Well, no jokes this time - maybe I'm feeling autumn already…

Photo: Marek Czubaszek