Flower for the Day Lilac 4-18-26

At the Lake House there is an old if small lilac bush which bloomed this last week. The common lilac (Syringa vulgaris) is a woody plant in the olive family. The name comes from the Ancient Greek word syrinx meaning pipe or tube and refers to its hollow branches. The leaves are opposite and lanceolate shaped. The flowers have a four-lobed corolla with the corolla tube narrow and long. They are monoecious, with fertile stamens and stigma in each flower. The usual color is light purple or lilac. This bush although small was exceptional for its strong almost overpowering fragrance. Stealing Lilacs A guaranteed miracle, it happens for two weeks each May, this bounty of riches where McMansion, trailer, the humblest driveway burst with color—pale lavender, purple, darker plum— and glorious scent. This morning a battered station wagon drew up on my street and a very fat woman got out and starting tearing branches from my neighbor’s tall old lilac— grabbing, snapping stems, heaving armloads of purple sprays into her beater. A tangle of kids’ arms and legs writhed in the car. I almost opened the screen door to say something, but couldn’t begrudge her theft, or the impulse to steal such beauty. Just this once, there is enough for everyone. Alice N. Persons Poem from Doug.