Original publication: November 1986.
SPECIAL HARVEST ’86
ED ROSENTHAL
The plants have ripened in the late autumn sun.
This top is in the second stage of flowering: the rapid growth. Like an anenome’s tentacles searching for food, the pistils push into the air trying to meet stray pollen.
Starting with the first stage of pubescence, a few brave hairs grew at the nodes.
Ten days later the pistils had grown enough to outline the future bud. Still white and fresh, with a tinge of red or purple, the flowers stood in a vain search for pollen. Another two weeks and the bud filled out, gained weight and squeezed out more hairs. The whole cola looked frenzied, each hair searching desperately for pollen, or else its fate would be to dry up, unfulfilled. Already some of the pistils had taken on deep purple or crimson hues as they dried and the ovary behind filled out in a false pregnancy.
In a magical synthesis, the buds ripened with short days, lit by a clear reddish sun, and cool nights. The pistils withered, losing any chance of contacting a floating pollen grain. They seemed to be drawn into the developing false seed pods.
The glands began to fill out. Hardly noticeable a week before, the glands sparkled just a bit when caught in the sun. A week later, they have grown into mushroom-shaped organs littering the leaves, the stem, but especially the flowers of the plant. They seem like crystals jostling for space in too small a space. They glisten. They have a halo when the sun is behind them at the end of the day. In the noon sun, they are luminescent. They glow. They radiate electricity. Just looking at them, you get a shiver of energy going up your spine.
You look …
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Author: High Times Vault / High Times
