Overlord Flower 霸王花

This morning I walked to the backyard to refill the bird/squirrel feeder as I do every day. Seeing two giant overlord flowers I immediately laid a yoga mat close to them. I so love practicing yoga in nature. 

 

The overlords smelled fragrant and looked stunning in the morning sunlight. A wild bee was humming in and out of the flower. A cardinal was chirping and jumping vividly in the crape myrtle tree where I hang the feeder on a branch. A couple of squirrels were fighting over their chance to get to the feeder. Ah, life can be so simple and beautiful. 

 

It is the third time this year the overlords bloomed in our backyard. Usually, the flowers start opening from midnight and last until the next morning. In June we had twenty plus flowers opening up within three days! I remembered Curtis and me lingering among the flowers in the dark with flashlights in our hands. We were blown away! 

 

I shared some flowers with Tina, my yoga student. She told me I could actually eat them, something I never heard before. The overlord flower soup was a traditional dish in the Guangdong province of China, where she was originally from. So I tried cooking it with chicken, mushrooms, dates, wood ear, and some spices. The soup was yummy for me. But Curtis thought it was slimy.  We dried the rest of the overlords and saved them for later cooking. 

 

Tripod Headstand with Overlords

 

Aug.12 updates: These two flowers contributed to my lunch.  Soup ingredients: overlord flowers, purple cabbage, sweet potato, dates, dried mushrooms, dried wood ears, celery, carrots, tangerine peel, unsalted chicken broth. It was delicious. 

 

今早我像每天一樣到後院給鳥兒鬆鼠喂食器加食。看到兩朵巨大的霸王花開啦，我立即在它們旁邊放了一張瑜伽墊。我很喜歡在自然環境中練習瑜伽。

 

霸王花聞著香氣撲鼻，在清晨的陽光下顯得格外迷人。一隻野蜂在花叢中嗡嗡地進進出出。我把喂食器掛在紫薇樹枝上，一隻紅鳥嘰嘰喳喳蹦蹦跳跳。好幾隻鬆鼠在爭搶到喂食器的機會。啊，生活可以如此簡單而美好。

 

霸王花今年是第三次在我們家後院開花了。通常花朵從午夜開始開放，一直持續到第二天早上。今年六月份三天內開了二十多朵花！Curtis和我手裏拿著手電筒在黑暗中徘徊在花叢中久久不願離去。太震撼了！

 

我把霸王花分享給了我的瑜伽學生Tina。是她告訴我它們是可以吃的，我以前可是從未聽說過。Tina是廣東人她說霸王花湯是中國廣東省的一道傳統菜肴。所以我試著用雞肉、蘑菇、紅棗、木耳和一些香料來做湯，很好吃。但Curtis覺得它很粘乎乎的。我們把剩下的霸王曬幹了留著以後做菜用。

 

更新：我把這兩朵花做了午餐。 湯料：霸王花、紫甘藍、紅薯、紅棗、幹香菇、幹木耳、芹菜、胡蘿卜、陳皮、無鹽雞湯。挺好吃的。

（初稿於2021-08-12）