Flower Key

Red Campion (Silene dioica) - with bee!

First, discover the parts:
the ovary, womb
for the fructus, small
fruit in the pregnant bower;

To this a style
carries to the stigma’s
lips the pollen,
wild gift of vicarious
stamens, still witnesses
to the end of procreation;

The calix, a green
ring of sepals holds it
all to the stem, echoes
the softer robe they bind -

A summer frock, the
corolla – crowning glory
of the flower;

And then seeds
for the brown earth:
fructus ad terram fecundam.