Adam's Weed

This dactylorhiza maculata, also as the heath spotted-orchid, I found growing close to the Leeds-Liverpool canal in the summer. Curiously, its Italian name is erba d'Adamo, which I assumed would mean Adam’s herb, but is more likely translated Adam’s Weed. Our earliest ancestor, Adam the First, bequeathed to us not healing and wholeness, but wildness, roughness and a lack of self-control. Where there should be beautiful, ordered gardens, there is scrub and wasteland; instead of dainty, sweet blooms, our souls are smothered by common weeds and rough shrubs.

Thank God, there was a Second Adam, who re-digs, replants and restores.

The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.               

Song of Solomon 2:12