夢の中のように (Just Like in the Dream)

　ウォーキング中に花の写真を撮ることを始めたのは、数年前のことで、最初は主記事に関係なくブログのページを飾るのが目的だった。しかし、最近は花の写真だけを載せることが多くなってしまった。花熱が高じて、夢の中でも、珍しい花を見つけてその写真を撮ろうとしながら、うまく行かない自分を見たりする。

　先日、八田荘公園に、夢とまがうばかりの、この季節にしては珍しい、大きなピンクの花が咲いているのを見た（写真；一枚目は最初に見た位置から逆光状態で撮影。二枚目は反対側の高くなっている地面で、近づいて撮影）。帰宅後、『花おりおり』の9〜12月のページを第1巻から順に見て行き、最後の第5巻でようやく似た花を見つけた（9月の章、p. 104）。それは赤い花だったが、形は私の見たものにそっくりで、「ダリア一重」とあった。ダリアの「品種数は三万を超え、花卉では五指に入ろう」とある。

　後日の追記：その後、写真の植物はコダチダリア（木立ちダリア、キク科）と呼ばれるもので、皇帝ダリアの別名を持つと知った。

A few years ago, I began to take pictures of flowers while walking. The original purpose was to increase the impact of blog pages with photos having no relation to the blog article. These days, however, my blog pages have begun to provide such an impression that its main purpose is to post pictures of flowers. My passion for taking pictures of flowers was so heightened that I often dream a dream of myself trying to get a picture of a rare flower without success.

The other day in Hattaso Park, Sakai, I saw such large, pink flowers that were rarely seen in this season (see the above photos; the top one was shot in the backlit situation as I first saw them; and the bottom one is a closer shot on the other side, where the ground was higher than the first position). After returning home, I browsed the pages of flowers from September to December in the books "Hana Oriori (Flowers in Each Season) Volume 1 to 5." In the last volume (Chapter "September," p. 104), I finally found a red flower, whose shape is quite similar to that of flowers in Hattaso Park. Its name was "single-flower dahlia." There was the following description: The number of varieties of dahlia is more than thirty thousand, probably being among the top five of flowers.

Note added later: I learned that the plant in the photo is called tree dahlia (botanical name, Dahlia imperialis; family, Asteraceae).