Flowered Path

So many pure white flowers, like a flowered path into infinity.

The flowers are lunaria annua, also known by many other names: Annual Honesty, Sweet Honesty, Honesty, Lunaria, Silver Dollar Plant, Dollar Plant, Money Plant, Moneywort, Moonwort. so many common names usually means a plant is not only widespread but also rather beloved. I got seeds for it some time back in the late 80s and saved seeds that I planted here in 1990. It’s been self-seeding itself wherever it pleases since then. The plant is both annual and biennial in the mustard family and is not native, but has naturalized wherever it’s been planted My original plants were pink, and I still have some, but the white variant has been winning over the past few years.

A section of my front yard has a cluster of plants one year and as I walked up the side steps to my front porch I saw them at eye level between the rhododendron and the porch post, full of light and leading off into infinity, though the front street is just 10 or so feet away. Each flower will drop and reveal a tiny bright green disk, transparent in the center, which will grow to be an inch or more in circular or oval circumference, then in autumn will dry to a light tan edge and a silvery-white parchment center that holds small round flat seeds between two layers of the thin parchment. I might not want them where they set down roots, but I certainly love the show they’ve all put on.

From Wikipedia: “In the language of flowers, the plant represents honesty, money, and sincerity. In witchcraft, the honesty plant is considered protective, being thought to keep away monsters. The plant is also used in spells for prosperity, the flat pods (when ripe and silvery) resembling coins and therefore being seen as symbolising promises of wealth. In the earliest surviving recipe for a flying ointment (recorded by Bavarian physician Johannes Hartlieb circa 1440), Lunaria is included as the herbal ingredient corresponding astrologically to the moon and therefore to be picked on the lunar day of Monday.”

Sounds like a good thing to have around. You can find other photos of lunaria here on Today.

About these photos

After a particularly rough winter spring has sprung all at once in my yard. These photos, and the ones I’ll be sharing of what’s blooming in my yard right now, are actually from April 2024 when I photographed all the same things that are in my yard blooming right now. This year I’m renewing my garden, clearing out the overgrown area I haven’t used for a few years and building out or renewing the flower beds and I’m barely taking time for photos.

I loved these photos and used very few that year. My little black cat Mimi, who’d shared my yard with me since 2012 and her life since 2007, was in her last months and I focused on her, and taking the most beautiful photos of her and everything growing and blooming was a balm to my soul in those months. That’s her in the light on the fresh green grass from the same day these dogwood photos were taken. Prescient, perhaps, is she looking into her future? So I share those photos as I remember her, that year and all the other springs we spent out there.

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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, visit my galleries of Photography on Portraits of Animals to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit “Custom Prints” for availability and terms. I'll be more than happy to make a print for you.