Every morning on the way to work I walk past a 200 meter long 4 meter deep stretch of land. It is hedged between the side walk of a less travelled part of a main road and the side wall of the apartment complex where I live. There are some camphor (Cinnamomum camphorated), candleberry (Triadica sebifera) and sweet osmanthus (Osmanthus fragrans) trees, and holly grape (Mahonia fortunei), evergreen spindle (Euonymus japonicus) and red tip photinia (Photinia x fraseri) bushes. Otherwise the city has left it alone. The mower has not come since the fall.
This is my secret garden, in plain view of the men and women walking on the sidewalk, in a hurry or sauntering by.
Starting from mid-February, whenever I walk on this road, my head is always turned left, eyes glued to this piece of seemingly desolate strip of land, looking for the tiny wild flowers reappearing after the winter, one by one.
The first to come out are the bird’s eye speedwells (Veronica persica). At first there are only a few hiding in the leaves, each with four sky blue petals marked by dark stripes and a white center. Soon there are hundreds of them twinkling under the shades of the trees and bushes, swaying on slender stalks in the breeze still with a tinge of winter. I never tire of watching them. To my surprise and delight, this spring I found a patch of grey field-speedwell (Veronica polity) for the first time. With a humbler look than its Persian relative, this pinkish little flower is a native but less common in the city.
Veronica persica
Veronica polita
Shepherd’s purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris) follows onthe heels of the bird’s eye speedwells. In China,the young leaves have been picked as a delicacy for thousands of springs. Whileloving wontons stuffed with a mixture of these fragrant leaves and minced pork,I could never recognize the plant until the tiny white flowers come out. By then the leaves are too tough to eat. The telltale sign of theshepherd’s purse is its triangular seed pods, easilydistinguishable from the stick like seed pods of another tiny white flower inthe mustard family, the hairy bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta).
Capsella bursa-pastoris
Cardamine hirsuta
Two other white flowers slightly bigger than the mustard brothers are the chickweed sisters - the greater chickweed (Stellaria neglecta), the first born, and the sticky mouse-ear chickweed (Cerastium glomeratum), the younger sister. The five deeply-cleft petals give them a starry look, contrasting with the furry sepals wrapping around the buds on the same stalk. In zoomed-in lens, they are startlingly elegant. The Chinese name of the sticky mouse-ear chickweed also includes an ear, a curly ear. This weed appeared in the first collection of Chinese poems - Book of Poetry, picked by the young wife, newly-wed, left home by the husband taken away to fight in faraway land, in that spring 2500 years ago.
Stellaria neglecta
Cerastium glomeratum
The secret garden is in no lack of the warm side of the palette. Before February ends, vetch (Vicia sativa) has added the first touch of warmth to the grayish brown turf, with its pink and magenta flowers unmistakable for the pea family. It is still going strong in early April, flowering and seeding at the same time. This weed also appeared in the Book of Poetry, this time picked by a soldier in the faraway battlefield, worrying that he wouldn’t be able to go home in time to raise a family. About three weeks after the first vetch flower opened, the first henbit (Lamium amplexicaule) flower finally shots up from the lacy cushion of clasping leaves. I have been watching the pink dots of bud nestling in their calyxes for these three weeks. The wait is awarded with a unique flower like a mouth on a long tube. The upper lip is a fuchsia woolly cap, the lower lip divided into three pink lobes painted with darker dots. Finally Mazus (Mazus pumilus) comes, adding a touch of violet to the garden.
Vicia sativa
Lamium amplexicaule
Mazus pumilus
Yellow wild flowers are the most prevalent,and the most vexing for someone with a mild case of OCD to identifyflowers. Because they all look alike! Those in the sunflower family all have a densehead of flowers clustering to form a single 「flower」. Those in the buttercup family all have brightyellow petals with the sheen of smoothed butter. Fortunately my secret garden is small. Only the most common of the wild flowerswould grow in it - oriental
falsehawksbeard(Youngiajaponica),Japanesenipplewort(Lapsanastrumapogonoides),pricklysowthistle(Sonchusasper)and spinyfruitbuttercup(Ranunculusmuricatus). I am content with the number of species of yellow flowers in mygarden. Amen!
Youngia japonica
Lapsanastrum apogonoides
Sonchus oleraceus
Ranunculus muricatus
I have to mention the sun spurge (Euphorbia helioscopia), a most intricate green flower. While a green chrysanthemum, rose or peony would generate so much woos and wows in the general public, this collection of little green clouds in the sun spurge is left to mind its own business undisturbed, in my secret garden. This is good for the public as well, since the milky white sap from its stem, if broken, is poisonous and causes skin irritation.
Euphorbia helioscopia
This spring I have also seen a few black nightshades (Solanum nigrum) and field mustards (Brassica rapa). Maybe a little bird took the seeds from the farmland not that far away. Twenty years ago, the whole area on the east side of the Huangpu River was just farmland. Now it boasts the most iconic skyline of China.
Solanum nigrum
Brassica rapa
This morning on the way to work, I noticed that the buds of the common fleabane (Erigeron philadelphicus) have turned light pink, and those of the plume thistle (Hemisteptia lyrata) have turned dark purple. They will be in bloom soon.
Erigeron philadelphicus
Hemisteptia lyrata
I also heard the ominous hum of the lawn mower from the other side of
the road. Hurry up, little flowers in my secret garden! Hurry up blooming and seeding! Before the mower comes.
作者簡介：一個花痴