Here you see a dying star. Or, more accurately, the leaves of a dying star flower plant, one of our many shy spring wildflowers whose beauty is obscured by their commonality. After the plant loses its delicate white flowers in early summer and is performing its farewell responsibilities in the early fall, it can turn various shades of color and then lose all color, but – for a few days – almost glow in ghostlike hues:
On the other hand, there is no obscuring the beauty of audacious gladiolas in the light of high summer and early fall. They are neither common nor shy at any time in their life. Some already are shedding their shriveling flowers in careless fall disarray.
(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on August 16 (gladiola) and 26-27 (starflower), 2025.)