Is he what I think he is?

[Forenote: Sorry for the really long post, but couldn’t help. My fingers were fluttering about the keyboard before I realized how long the post turned out to be… Hope I don’t bore you]

Sometime before the arrival of Haemanta (Winter) last year, many experimental seeds very scattered in pots across Plantville last year and forgotten in the chaos created by Haemanta’s wicked daughter (Nishâ – the hurricane that barely touched Chennai). Many potential seeds were carried in her haste to Plantville and taken away from it too.

With the rains gone and when the citizens of Plantville were licking their wounds, many visitors manifested themselves at Plantville. One among them was this interesting person. With a single purplish, serrated, obovate leaf, it looked attractive. As most of you who’ve read my earlier posts know, I welcome my visitors warmly as long as they aren’t a nuisance. Even weeds, if good looking, are treated well. Will I ignore this visitor, whose leaf soon grew into palmate, doubly serrated leaves. I, by now, decided that guy’s gonna live in Plantville.

I was ever curious of its identity. Who could this be?

He was growing comfortably with the Jâtî family and soon I realized that the pot was too small for the three. So I had to pluck this visitor out. I tried my best to take him out but his roots were really deep that when I held its base and tugged it, the entire soil was lifted out of the pot. Now, I was afraid I might damage my Jasmines. Praying all the gods, I held down the soil with one hand and gently started tugging this guy. No way. He wouldn’t budge. I had to make a decision now. It’s either this guy or the Jasmines.

I took my hands off and took another look at the foliage and at the Jasmines. I took in a deep breath and once again pulled the guy out holding the soil down with my other hand. He wouldn’t budge. I pulled with a bit more force and I could feel this guy being hurt…

My heart skipped a beat…

I paused and waited…

Taking in another breath I tugged him a bit gently… Tuck, tuck… Two more roots were cut off…

I was murdering this visitor!

God no! I’m not doing this wantedly. What if he’s an invasive weed and what if he destroys my Jasmines? But again, I don’t want to lose him either! He was the only kind. He came without a family into Plantville…

Well, I seemed to have no choice. I had done enough damage by now. Praying still, I pulled him out and looked at my victim. I didn’t want to look at it though. What if I’d killed him? What if he were a beautiful flowering plant like the Sunflower who visited Plantville last summer?

I slowly (well, not sooo slowly like you see in movies though :D) turned my face and looked at my victim…

What do you guys think I saw?

Was I a murderer?

[SIGH]

[Another SIGH]

Well, I didn’t kill him! I managed to keep his taproot safe. It were his other roots that were severed badly. I wasted no time and dipped him in a mug of water. With the sun blazing down on us, he might not survive too long. I came downstairs quick and plopped him into a small pot of soil with a fair share of food for him.

My mom wasn’t all that happy with my work. “You could’ve waited till evening. Why do it when Sun’s so high in the sky?”

I remained mum and looked at my work. Not bad, but not good either. The guy was looking pathetic, with all his leaves hanging down limp. Would he live? Time will say...

I went to sleep for the day. Waking after five hours for lunch, I ran out to see the victim. His leaves looked better! That made me feel better… The next day, looked as if he would love some sun and I returned him back to the city… In no time, he grew healthily...

Days later I observed that he gave out a tendril… (You might remember his first tendrils from last week's Macro post) That too a forked tendril! Now is this a vine? Well, somehow, Mother Nature knows my love for creepers and gifts me with them.

Now, let’s analyze this, shall we…?

What do we know about this Plant?

It is a Vine… with Palmate leaves… that are serrated… correction – doubly serrated… palmately veined… purplish leaves that turn green… has forked tendrils…

What could this plant be?

Yesterday, night, with very less work at office, I did some googling and I was excited at what I learnt. Is he what I think he is?

Is he… ermmm… he… is he…

… Is he a... a...

...A GRAPE?Tell me YES! Please, pretty please... Let it be a Grape! I’ll be soooooo... excited. Later when I began thinking at office, I realized that I had thrown in some grape seeds that I’d saved from the fruits. So was it going through a dormant stage? Or may be it isn’t from the seeds I cast away into the pots? Let’s see… You guys have any idea