Living Emerald in the Garden

 San Vicente Botanical Garden Series 5:

Living Emerald in the Garden

" Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain."  Henry David Thoreau

Dr Abe V Rotor

 

Contrast between an exquisite jewel beetle and a working hand.

        Iridescent* Asian Jewel Beetle (Sternocera aequisignata)

You catch the rainbow, the rising sun,

     the fading light of the day,

golden, sapphire, amethyst , emerald

     changing colors as you may.

Green you appear most of the time,

     yet in a variety of design,

that earns you a status of species,

     among hundreds of your kind. 

Children love you for play and keep, 

     parlors for your vanity;

in the garden you are a living gem;

     Nature's touch of sanctity.

 *Iridescence (also known as goniochromism) is the phenomenon of certain surfaces that appear to gradually change color as the angle of view or the angle of illumination changes. Examples of iridescence include wings of certain insects, feathers, butterfly wings and seashells as well as certain minerals.

"How still the woods seem from here, yet how lively a stir the hidden animals are making; digging, gnawing, biting, eyes shining, at work and play, getting food, rearing young, roving through the underbrush, climbing the rocks, wading solitary marshes, tracing the banks of the lakes and streams! Insect swarms are dancing in the sunbeams, burrowing in the ground, diving, swimming,—a cloud of witnesses telling Nature's." - John Muir *

 *John Muir also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks", was an influential Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologist, and early advocate for the preservation of wilderness in the United States of America. Wikipedia