January 31: Holly Flowers

When we think of holly, we think of holly berries. Shiny green spiky leaves and red berries for the holidays. But holly flowers?

During the holiday season I clipped a sprig of holly (to be truthful, I hijacked it off a shrub on the grounds of a church) and put it in a vase to add to the festive decor in my kitchen. Almost two months later, the sprig's leaves are still green, its berries not yet dried up or fallen. It's been around long enough to blend into the background so that I hardly notice it any more, but I happened to glance at it this morning. A clump of white caught my eye. Worried that it might be getting moldy after all this time of just hanging out in a vase of unchanged water in my kitchen, I looked more closely. Not mold. Flowers! Little tiny white flowers!

Being a flowering plant, holly obviously has to produce flowers at some point, but I've never noticed them. And no wonder, given that they're almost microscopic. I felt as if I'd discovered a whole new life form.



Few will ever see
this modest holly flower
bloomed in my kitchen.