The Chinese Toon

Is it a tree? It doesn't have a central trunk, but grows rather like bamboo, sending up new stems from its earth bound suckers. So it matures as a clump, slowly spreading year by year, unless controlled by removing the new stems as they emerge. In winter, it appears as a stand of barren, upright rods. With the first hints of spring, however, the new growth appears as deep crimson frills that become fernlike as they grow, but pale constantly so that, by the arrival of summer they merge, from the crimson to pink to beige, and finally to green, a constant changing of hue. . It is this spectacular display that fascinates Toon lovers, a seasonal, riotous cycle of colour. My earlier post shows it in mid-summer, in full green.

Our stood outside our bedroom, finally urging me to set it in a piece of verse that can never do justice to its beauty.