Tirza ~ May 24

 

Peonies

 

I am crazy about peonies.  One of the first plants I planted.

Someone told me they need ants for their buds to bloom. How is that possible?

Even considering the millions of years of evolution, it seems outlandish. How is it that two species can be so intimately interdependent for their survival?  How does that happen? Unless you delve into design, and God said, “Ants, you’re too fixated on survival and hard work. So boring. I’ll give you a higher purpose, here go and help create beauty!”

Well, it turns out it’s a myth. As skeptical as I was, I feel deflated.  

But there is still a relationship between the ant and the peony. Like me, ants are crazy about peonies, but they’re into their nectar, not their beauty (though, who knows?).  And ants protect the peony from other pests.  (Perhaps now I should write about the value of walls that crawl?)

In looking this up I find that the peony is named after Paeon and “…the story goes that Paeon, known as the healer of the gods, used a peony to treat a wound for Zeus. When Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine and healing, became murderously jealous of his pupil, Zeus saved Paeon by turning him into a peony flower.”

So drama, of an operatic nature, surrounds them, befitting the costume.

And when you cut peonies for your favorite wide-mouthed blue and white pitcher so they can spread and lean to show off their magnificence, be prepared to distress dozens of ants as they scurry over your arms and kitchen counter.  

The only known aesthetes of the universe, the humans, interfere with this symbiosis for pleasure alone.  The blooms last only a couple of days inside, when instead might have provided nectar dessert for the entire colony.