Decurrent

A few days ago I came across a suspected common mullein, aka Verbascum Thapsus, in East Street, in which connection there was talk of leaves being decurrent. I made a return visit to look into them.

No doubt at all in my mind that these leaves are decurrent, that is to say the leaf margins continue to run down the stem well below the point of first attachment.

Along the way, Gemini had explained that this was quite different from clasping, aka amplexicaul, and while our original conversation has gone missing (or perhaps a conversation with Google Images, which is not archived in the same way), he is well able to remind me about all this, this afternoon. And his story is confirmed by his rival Bing.

I also tried for a close-up of the flowers, from which I learn that each floret does indeed have five petals.

But there was not enough to confirm Gemini's story about the cunning flowering plan of the plant, which includes the florets only lasting a day, but with the sequence of florets ripening over quite a good chunk of the summer and the wheeze whereby the five stamens - three short and two long - conspire to force self-pollination in the case that proper pollination does not come off before the floret expires. Further inspection of both the plant and Bentham & Hooker required there.

And I am reminded that in this particular case, there are two plants at this particular location. Probably related, but breeding-out of a sort is possible. A phrase I think I learned from an unpleasant fox-hunting lady in an episode of 'Midsomer Murders'.

In the meantime, I checked on the Screwfix whitebeam.

To find all present and correct. With the bonus of quite a lot of blackberries ripening on the bushes to the left. More or less enough to flavour up a serving of stewed apples, had I happened to have a suitable container about my person. As it was, I just ate a few of them.

PS 1: Gemini handles this one quite well too. Not that I have checked his neat story of Alan Bennett's conflation of two strands in the early history of Fortnum and Mason's for his play about George III.

PS 2: Copilot offers a rather different take on the pollination story. Consistent with that from Gemini, but told from a rather different point of view: more natural history, less anatomy. If it were not so hot, one might compare and contrast. But it is.

PS 3: Gemini was able to delve into the 'Midsomer' archives for me, with access to what must be quite detailed summaries of the plots. But I think he rather overdoes my conflation of the two uses of the phrase from the two episodes: my visual and verbal memory is very much from the second of the two that he mentions. But there is no disputing that he was able to turn it up on a fairly thin clue.

PS 4: in a Gemini-heavy day, it is appropriate to draw attention to the piece in the FT at reference 4. Very eco-lefty, all about how the US tech giants are gobbling up huge amounts of resources to power their AI ambitions. With very little of the fuss and bother which accompanies even quite modest infrastructure developments in, for example, this country. And then there are the Chinese tech giants, doing much the same.

Given that, as things stand, I would be content to pay Google rather more than I do for access to their AI services, I am starting to feel a bit uncomfortable.

All this without much reference to the possible effect of AI on employment - in a world already short of decent jobs for young men and women. Or to the added complication of a shortage of care workers and health workers to look after an aging population...

References

Reference 1: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/06/early-and-late.html. The first visit to the mullein of East Street.

Reference 2: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/07/hampton-court.html. Another mullein.

Reference 3: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/07/michaelmas-daisies.html. The clasping connection.

Reference 4: The great AI data centre cover-up: Tech companies need to come clean about the mounting environmental fallout of their race to build more hubs - Pilita Clark, Financial Times - 2026. What the FT calls an opinion piece.

Group search key: 20260630.