#epigaea repens

[thebotanicalarcade]

Trailing Arbutus and Pussy Willow in Opalescent Vase by Emily McGary Selinger, oil on artist board, 12 x 10 inches. Vose Galleries, Boston, Massachusetts

[emkini]

I just read your rocking horse post and I am SO INVESTED!! Looking forward to your further progress! Solidarity on the "are you sure that's a good idea pipsqueak" look, as another young person with a habit of taking on unreasonably ambitious projects!! But like tbh you're killing it!!

THANK U my friend I'm glad you're enjoying my insanity!!! Overly ambitious projects are frustrating but man it's WORTH IT in the end

[ryu-slayer]

Zutara Big Bang 2024 Katara and the Dragon

@zkbigbang

Yo everyone! J-man here with one of my latest ZK pieces! This is one of four pieces I did in collaboration with the talented (redacted to be revealed on the 15th). This piece is actually a two-parter; the first part depicts Zuko's death in the first chapter. The second half is a bit of a spoiler, so if you'd prefer to leave things in suspense, I'd save checking out the "read more" tab until later. But if you're cool with it, then by all means, check out the second half. 🙂 Also be sure to check out my art partner @epigaea-repens piece it's incredible!!

Here is the second half, which depicts Zuko transformed back into a human after being a dragon. He and Katara are in the gardens after she is attacked by assassins, and sacrificed himself (again) to save her.

[chrissystriped]

TRSB 2024 - Yarn Crafts

First time participating in @tolkienrsb as an artist and it has been great fun! I bought a drop spindle last year after flirting with the idea for ages (a wheel moved in a few months later) and it made me very aware how every piece of thread would have had to be spun by hand in earlier days. All items in the moodboard were made by me. Whose are they? What is the story behind them? Find out on September 6 in the fic by @epigaea-repens

Tumblr forced me to cut the gif, a longer, better quality version can be found here:

[vandaliatraveler]

NC-WV is finally enjoying a dry, sunny spring weekend after weeks of near nonstop, flooding rain. That was all the incentive I needed to take my first long hike of the spring at Coopers Rock State Forest. The wildflower progression on top of Chestnut Ridge is running about 2 weeks behind that at lower elevations, but there were plenty of early spring beauties on display this afternoon. From top: Allegheny serviceberry (Amelanchier laevis); long-spurred violet (Viola rostrata); halberd-leaved yellow violet (Viola hastata); downy rattlesnake plantain (Goodyera pubescens); trailing arbutus (Epigaea repens), which is not herbaceous but a mat-forming, evergreen shrub in the health family; broadleaf toothwort (Cardamine diphylla), also known as two-leaf toothwort; and round-lobed hepatica (Hepatica americana), which prefers drier woods than sharp-lobed hepatica (Hepatica acutiloba), which I typically find growing on the rocky, calcareous slopes along the Monongahela River.

[star-farer]

the flowering stars

Summary: For a child of Kamino, it takes very little to amuse. AU: Ik'aad, High Fantasy Star Wars (hfsw) Taglist: @margindoodles2407, @kybercrystals94, @fionas-frenzy, @padawancat97

Author's note: This is a crossover with an AU belonging to my dear friend Margin — @high-fantasy-sw is her main blog concerning it, go check it out! — so the writing style will bear a more archaic feel, not to mention the characters speaking somewhat like a Knight of Olde tm. But it will also have elements of science, at the very least up till a somewhat 19th century science, of a sort. Friend's note: I hope you like it, Margin! Tried my best to balance the mix between the Ye Olden Days and Victorian Steampunk languages.

One unforeseen day in their barracks, surrounded by warm blankets and hearts, Omega, sat kindly upon Wrecker’s lap, is gently handed a gift she swears to remember unto the end of ages.

“Is it a star?” comes her gasping question, and laughter rumbles about her, shared by each of the four chambers of her heart, her vode.

She peers down at the object lying cupped in her two hands, having been warned to be most careful with it. Curiosity stirs within her: she has never seen anything so strange. Like the spokes of a wheel, five little fins flare out from the yellow of its center, a beautiful pure white.

Is this not what a star looks like?

“Ah, Om’ika,” laughs Hunter, and she lifts her face to see fondness glowing in his eyes, “We forget how little you have seen.”

Tech, he lifts a finger, quite ready to tell her a tale. Crosshair, he swipes a hand in the air, and cuts him off as a blade slices a cord. “Do not bore her with your lectures, ori’mirshe. Speak plainly.”

He earns himself a glare — two glares, in truth, for Omega would much like to know all there is concerning the wonder that lies cradled in her palms. It is ever so rare that her vode bring her something, a shard of life belonging to the world above the waters. It must be very important, then, if they have preserved it all this way to rest in her hands.

Tech relents with a heavy sigh, more for her sake than his, she is certain, and places her hands within his, unfurling them with his thumbs so that the curiosity lies displayed for all to see. “It is a plant, ad’ika. A flower.”

“Plant,” she breathes, watching her buir pick it up by its stalk, a green so vivid unlike the dim verdancy of kelp and algae, “Flower.”

She remembers the words, remembers the wondrous tales she would be told of lands filled with such fair beings, swaying in the air currents, shining bright beneath the great star. Those are tales spoken softly when the bells ring and the lamps are dimmed, when arms come sweetly around her to pull her close and warm and tuck a blanket around her curled form. Then is she borne on the wings of those quiet words into a land of dreams, where colors she has never imagined dazzle and blind her, where songs of creatures unseen and unheard of ring in her mind’s ear.

And here twirls a plant, a flower, from that foreign country, before her eyes and between Buir’s fingers.

Oh! Oh, but this is simply extraordinary!

“It is a mayflower blossom," he expounds, "Epigaea repens is its scientific name. Wholly pentamerous, bearing five of each of the components of the four whorls.”

She does not understand any of his speech, though it does not matter. Some day, she shall understand him perfectly. But for now, she is content with understanding little.

“Mayflower? Is that its name?”

Names are very important, she has been told. Nearly as important as the ring on a clone’s finger.

Buir smiles at her, eyes creasing in their corners beyond the yellow lenses, and holds the flower, the mayflower, up before her eyes. With his other hand, he picks up her own paw and directs her to wrap forefinger and thumb around the green stalk, mirroring himself.

Nodding, he releases the mayflower. “That is its name, my clever heart, yes.”

Once more does she gasp, gazing at the flower with wide eyes. Its fins — petals, she remembers being taught — they look soft and pliant to touch, and she moves to do so.

Until the Mistresses stern voice fills her head.

Omega, do not touch what you must not!

Swift is the motion with which she draws back the outreaching fingers. She raises nervous eyes.

“May I touch it?”

A noise, strange and low, reverberates behind her, and there is something sad upon Tech’s face, even as he speaks in that silent voice that means a warning, “Wrecker.”

There is a similar sorrow and warning in Hunter’s gaze when she turns to look, yet in Crosshair’s, there lies a stony wrath that makes her shrink into Wrecker’s embrace. Opening her mouth, she aims to repair her misstep with an apology.

But Crosshair, when his eyes alight upon her face, interrupts once more, stern features softening so that a smile slopes along the line of his lips. A hand he holds out, and she places hers in it. With a small chuckle, he raises it and holds her fingertip to the petal.

“Be gentle,” he murmurs, even as she begins to stroke it, “It may break.”

Her eyes widen. “It can break?”

“Aye. But it is stronger than it appears.”

“Even still,” puts in Hunter, no haste in his warm voice, “One must be careful. As with all things.”

She hums her understanding — prudence has been taught all her life. She knows how to hold this mayflower, how to touch its petals without breaking it. She knows to be gentle, for she learnt it of her vode.

“I believe I can do it,” she tells them, marveling at the curious texture beneath her finger, “I believe I can be gentle.”

And Wrecker barks a sound of laughter, deep and true where it rattles her ribs.

“As do we, tracinya. With all our hearts. This wee blossom, ‘twas picked with you foremost in our thoughts. And ‘tis yours for now and evermore!”

Here is a gift, of thought and wonder. Here is a symbol, of promises ne’er-forgotten. Here is an organism, of sky and earth and air.

Yet what can compare to the love of her aliit?

[saintsenara]

I’m obsessed with your unhinged ship opinions! They’ve really gotten me thinking about interesting combinations which is such a fun activity for the subway

My submissions:

- Narcissa Malfoy/Petunia Dursley

- Voldemort/Molly Weasley

- Nagini/Crookshanks

- Walburga Black/Barty Crouch Sr.

ahhh, thank you so much @epigaea-repens - light of my life and producer of the finest piece of fan art i've ever seen - i'm genuinely delighted to discover that somebody other than me gets something out of doing these.

narcissa malfoy/petunia dursley

i'm oddly partial to a bit of draco/dudley - entirely because the idea of vernon trying to out-pompous lucius is funny to me, as is the fact that they'd clearly both think harry would care and harry's actual response would be 'who's draco?' - and i have to confess myself partial to this too.

narcissa's narrative mirror is molly weasley - both of these women share a certain fierceness [and, especially, a fierceness and strength one might not expect of them at first glance], but they also share a certain disconnection from the rest of their family, and an undercurrent of loneliness can be detected in their characterisation.

this is present in the way petunia is written too - the implication of canon is both that she's married "up" in terms of social class and that vernon is quite a bit older than her.

[and her fandom reception is a victim, i think, of the aging up of the adult cast of the films - petunia is, at most, twenty-four when lily dies. like her sister, she marries and has children young, even by the social standards of 1970s/1980s britain, and having to take on harry changes the trajectory of her life when it's only just started - i am absolutely wedded to the idea, for example, that harry being placed in her care means that she gives up a plan to have a second biological child.]

she is, of course, also confined in a prison which is directly of her own making - the bland domesticity of her perfect little house, all of which is an artifice constructed so she doesn't have to admit how deeply she once longed to be magic. narcissa experiences the same - i always read her as someone who leans heavily on the gendered conventions of the wizarding world as a way of coping with how utterly both of her sisters defied them, and as being someone who is very concerned with keeping up appearances [hence why her wildness and desperation when she goes to see snape in half-blood prince is so shocking]. i think you can imagine that she runs malfoy manor to have the same nothing-wrong-here vibe as number four privet drive, and i think you can do something very interesting indeed with the idea of two women who live behind masks being forced to drop them when they find each other.

lord voldemort/molly weasley

does, in fact, exist, in the form of a story i will recommend to everyone - come slowly, eden by paimpont - which, like all the best rare-pair fics, takes two implausible characters and creates a genuinely meaningful love story between them, through a lovely character study of molly and her ability to notice when people [and, especially, when people who are very much in want of a mother] are hungry.

nagini/crookshanks

i had to look up crookshanks' gender for this - which is a wild thing to say on a weekday afternoon - so that i could confirm... flopping. nagini's a lesbian, crookshanks misunderstood when she said she liked pussy.

it's fine in the end, though. nagini's got something happening with one of the malfoys' peahens, and crookshanks can go back either to the enemies-to-lovers thing he's got going on with mrs norris or to the soulmates thing he's got going on with sirius.

walburga black/barty crouch sr.

i am completely obsessed with this concept, i don't even think it can be considered a crack ship, and i would like to see it written immediately.

debilitating grief at the son you thought you knew disappearing - whether literally or metaphorically? delicious.

[panda-p3]

Happy Reveal day!! I am the author behind The Hands Which Hold me !! I hope you guys will tune in…

I want to say thank you to @epigaea-repens and @starlight-tea-writing for being lovely betas and sifting through many things that I needed to work on!

And thank you to @llamalpaca for some awesome art that they made! ZK big bang has been such a rewarding experience and I love to see all the awesome work people have been putting in!

[grundyscribbling]

It is @tolkienrsb time!

Story: Backstitch by Grundy

Art: Miriel in the Hall of Portraits by @epigaea-repens

Rating: Teen & Up

Warnings: mention of past character death, not LaCE compliant

Characters: Indis, Míriel Þerindë, Findis, Eärwen, Anairë, Nerdanel , Elemmírë, Finarfin

Relationships: Finwë/Indis/Míriel

Word count: 7570

Summary: When Míriel Þerindë returns to Tirion, she has relationships to repair and much to catch up on.

[pacificnorthwesterngothic]

Madrone, Madrona, or Arbutus?

The common name of the tree Arbutus menziesii depends on where you are or where you are from.

North American members of the genus are called Madrones, from the Spanish name madroño (strawberry tree) although this terminology is not used in Canada. The European species are also called Strawberry Trees from the superficial resemblance of the fruit to a strawbrry; some species are sometimes referred to simply as the “Arbutus”.

In the United States, the name “Madrone” is used south of the Siskiyou Mountains of southern Oregon/northern California and the name “Madrona” is used north of the Siskiyou Mountains according to the “Sunset Western Garden Book”. In British Columbia, the trees are simply known by the name “Arbutus.”

All refer to the same tree, Arbutus menziesii, native to the Pacific Northwest and Northern California regions. It is Canada’s only native broadleaved evergreen tree. Some species in the genera Epigaea, Arctostaphylos and Gaultheria were formerly classified in Arbutus. As a result of its past classification, Epigaea repens (Mayflower) has an alternative common name of “trailing arbutus”.”

(The original source of this on Wikipedia seems to have vanished so I’m cross-posting from an article from Washington State University.)

[uswildflowers]

Epigaea repens, via http://wildflowerID.info

[thebotanicalarcade]

n562_w1150 by Biodiversity Heritage Library Via Flickr: American medicinal plants New York,Boericke & Tafel,c1887. biodiversitylibrary.org/page/26077866

[dailybotany]

I keep trying to make a post about Epigaea repens but tumblr HATES it. Refuses to save the draft every time.

[saintsenara]

once again, i am shaking and crying!

LOOK at them! LOOK AT THEM! i am in disbelief. tom's mansplaining expression is perfection.

@epigaea-repens, you are a legend!

Further Turtle (Tom Riddle/Myrtle Warren) art/Bookbinding by @saintsenara fanart! The natural way to unwind after an overwhelming day! 😌

Tom is expounding probably on Dumbledore’s total incompetence and unacceptability as a teacher…or maybe plumbing…

I love the idea of drawing on my iPad because it’s so portable and low effort, but I’ve really struggled with the absence of physical feedback and of motion which are so rich in my native land of watercolors. This is my favorite work with it thus far, because I was able to use layering and unusual layer modes to bring in complexity of color without which I feel things look really artificial and unpleasant to me.

Their little outfits are very loosely referenced from paintings of clothing from the early sixteenth century -here are some wonderful examples - because for the sake of whimsy and fun I am convinced Hogwarts has only recently, if ever, updated its costumes since the statute of secrecy.

[chrissystriped]

Three Ladies Weaving

Art by @chrissystriped

Fic by @epigaea-repens

Link to the Art

Link to the Fic

Summary: Miriel, Queen of the Elves weaves the world's first tapestries. Luthien, Half-Elven Lady of Doriath, weaves enchantment about the borders of her home. Arwen, Queen of Gondor, weaves past into present and passes it to her chosen people.

Rating: G

Warnings: none

Characters: Míriel Serindë, Lúthien, Arwen

Words: 9947

@tolkienrsb

[vandaliatraveler]

A few mementos from a short hike on the Virgin Hemlock Tail this morning. Cold, damp weather has settled into NC West Virginia, but any rain is welcome following an unusually dry winter and spring (opposite of the West Coast). From top: the ever balletic but stinky red trillium (Trillium erectum); long-spurred violet (Viola rostrata); wood anemone (Anemone quinquefolia), longing for a burst of sun to open its flowers; trailing arbutus (Epigaea repens), a ground-hugging shrub in the heath family; early meadow-rue (Thalictrum dioicum); and an Eastern red-backed salamander (Plethodon cinereus), a terrestrial salamander of rich, damp mountain woods.