Mexican Campion

Sometimes the setting of the moon is as spectacular as the rising. As it slides down toward the mountains in the horizon it appears larger and larger. A few days a week I drive east to work in the early morning and I do stop and watch the moon, or sing softly to it, or photograph it as it disappears behind the Dragoon Mountains. Always a nice start to the day.

Caryophyllaceae is the pink family or carnation family and as I write this I’m wondering why isn’t it the campion family, but oh well, according to my Hortus Third there around five hundred species of Silene found around the world in the Northern Hemisphere. Nine species are found here in Arizona. And by the way, it was Linnaeus that named the genus after Silenus, the drunken tutor of Bacchus, an obscure fact that I found in the book Gods and Goddesses in the Garden by Peter Bernhardt. A book only a plant geek would own, and yes, I do, but listen, a plant named after the drool of a drunk.

A couple notes: the photos are mine and you can see the cardinal red pinked petals of Silene lanciniata. Pretty showy, right? And that is the moon going down over the Dragoons. The blacktop highway to the left is 191 or the old 666.