Green Dragon

GREEN DRAGON FAERIES

The Green Dragon is an infrequently encountered herb of ancient lineage. Related to the more well known Jack in the Pulpit, it has a similar life history, except perhaps for this:

Rarely witnessed by human eyes, the male Green Dragon Faery goes about in early spring. Arrested by the beauty of the season, nature impels him to please himself in the private bottomlands near lovely creeks. His seed is let out upon the ground, and from this, the flower arises in spring.

During the remainder of the spring and summer season, the herb is known only by the unusual palmate leaves, signature of the male faery’s handiwork.

Later on in the summer season, the inseminated stalks of the Green Dragon herb appear as a fruiting body, a cluster of jewel-toned red berries, rising perhaps two or three inches from the soil. With no further interaction, any number of these berries eventually falls to the forest floor, where they stand as good a chance of any of sprouting into a new Green Dragon plant. Many berry stalks, however, persist long into the fall. These appear irresistibly in the fantasy of the female Green Dragon Faery who happens by. Called by nature, she mounts the stalks of berries to satisfy herself. Inevitably, one or more of the berries is dislodged into her womb during the experience. These berries, in a favorable year, take root into her womb to later be born as the next generation of Green Dragon Faerie.