Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Flower Photo: Purple Shamrocks in the Rain and A Mini-Typhoon

Here's a photo of the Purple Shamrocks in my front yard.  They're taking a beating today as we experience our first typhoon of the season.  Not to worry, these guys are tough and this is what I consider to be a mini-typhoon. We're getting a nice breeze and sideways-blowing rain.  It doesn't stick to you much.

We haven't had a really good telephone pole-busting typhoon around here in the past ten years.  So, our number may come up anytime, now.  We used to call Okinawa, Typhoon Alley because back in the days when we had no building codes, the typhoons knew it.  And they'd gang up, build strength and blow stuff down all over the island.  It seems like the past few years China, Taiwan, and the Philippines have been getting the worst of the storms.  We're lucky in Okinawa.  We have shamrocks.  Hah!

These Purple Shamrocks, I'm going to stick my neck way out and call them Oxalis regnellii atropurpea because I found some that look like mine at PLANT OF THE WEEK dot ORG.

If you do a search on shamrocks, you can find enough information to get the Pope, St. Patrick, all the Presidents in South America and some of the ugly women in the British Royal Family, along with a few drunk Irishmen into the biggest brawl of the Century.  I'd like to be a part of that!

Some sites will tell you shamrocks came from South America.  Others will tell you shamrocks, like ospreys, are on every continent except Antarctica. 

The Trades Mark Act of 1996 restricts the use of the Shamrock Emblem to goods or services from Ireland.  So, Ireland has this dude called The Minister of Trade, Enterprise, and Initiative who can say "Yay or Nay" if you want to use his logo.  CHECK IT OUT HERE.

If you ask the people living in Ireland to bring you some shamrocks, they show up with about five different kinds of plants.  That's because nobody really knows what a shamrock is supposed to be!




A guy walks out of the bar and sits down on the steps. He wants the mini-typhoon to blow away, rain to stop and the sun to start shining again.  He says his plants are Purple Shamrocks and he has a picture to prove it.  Don't matter if yer the Minister of Trade or Queen of England.  You wanna argue with me?





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