Succulent

The Turning Seasons: Plants, Death, and Rebirth

The Turning Seasons: Plants, Death, and Rebirth

Today is Easter, the time when in the Christian tradition, someone who was once presumed deceased is reborn into a new, but strikingly similar form.  Yesterday was World Transgender Awareness Day, celebrating a community so often misunderstood, harassed, or ignored--a community whose very nature calls out in an expression of change, ideally able to embrace the individual's truest self.  On the Spring Equinox, March 20, was Ostara, the transition between the hibernation and death of winter into the rebirth and new life of spring.  I find it apt that all three of these events occur during a liminal period, not entirely one or the other--the dusk of one season and dawn of the next.

Houseleeks, Hens, and Chicks (Sempervivum)

Houseleeks, Hens, and Chicks (Sempervivum)

There are many species in the Sempervivum genus, each unique and with particular properties.  Noted by Linnaeus in 1757, the genus name translates to "always living," a reference to the plants' hardy, drought-tolerant nature, enabling it to survive in both intense heat and frost.  They are also known as houseleeks, hens, chicks, or hen's nests in some areas.