Surprising Transformation

Growing into Gothic.

Now that the calendar has turned a page and there’s a slight nip in the air, it’s a nice surprise to come across a tall bushy green mound with bright summer-yellow buds.  

Kirengeshoma palata, or yellow wax bells, is one of the very few woodland perennials that flowers late in the summer. Waiting until mid-August or September to open, the buds open into long bell-shaped blooms which hang, nodding gracefully, at the end of arching leaf stems. The waxy flowers have a crystalline surface which sparkles in bright light.  

"Summer's lease hath all too short a date...   And every fair from fair sometime declines."

William Shakespeare (Sonnet 18)

Unlike the ugly duckling that matures from an unattractive cygnet into a graceful swan, the lovely wax bell goes the other way - at maturity producing bulbous greenish-brown seed capsules, each with three long protruding horns that give off an eerie appearance. Allan Armitage, a renowned horticulturist at the University of Georgia, calls them “...the Stephen King of fruit.”

I hope I can remember where I saw these, so I can come back later and witness that transformation for myself.