In recent days we have been lucky enough to see
two sorts of lupin (US spelling is lupine and Hebrew word is turmus possibly
related to the word thermos [= warm, hot]).
These two types are the deep blue lupin (Lupinus pilosus) with a white splodge in the
middle of its blue petals,
and the pale blue and white Israeli lupin (Lupinus palaestinus).
Beautiful as the flowers are, I particularly
like to look at the lupin’s wonderful palmate leaves.
You might think me a little loopy, but I must
tell you that when I see lupins growing, I do wonder what is lurking beneath
them. The Midrash (Gen Rab 79:6) relates that the great second century sage,
Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, planted lupin seeds in Tiberias (our hometown) to
determine whether the ground below was part of an ancient cemetery. Where there
were skeletons below, lupins grew from the seeds – but lupins didn’t grow where
there was an absence of bones. And, by the way, I’ve checked – there are no
skeletons in my closet.
Lupins are edible and have been eaten for
thousands of years – the Talmud (Beitzah 35) states that the leguminous beans are
as bitter as can be, but if boiled in water seven times they become sweet and
can be wolfed down along with the tastiest of desserts. Though I have to say,
rather than turmus for dessert, I think I shall stick with tiramisu.
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Have you ever read H.G Wells’ novel ‘The
Invisible Man’? I wonder if he got the idea from the false Apollo butterfly
that I wrote about last week. It wasn’t clear from last week’s photo that this
amazing little butterfly can be almost as invisible as Wells’ eponymous
character. As the butterfly ages its wings become more and more transparent. The
elderly butterfly I saw a few days ago at Gamla was barely noticeable as it
rested on a yellow flower. It does make you wonder why other critters don’t use
this method of camouflage. Well, actually, a few do, including glass frogs, the
glass octopus and some jelly fish. Watch out next time you’re swimming in tropical
waters.
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