Z is for Zorzi

         (My A to Z Blog Challenge theme this year is Beyond Pomegranate & Thorns, my brand-sparkly-new collection of short stories, poems, and art inspired by fairy tales, myths, and folklore.  All through the month I’ve shared excerpts of art, stories, and poetry from my book, as well as some reflections on the power of the traditional stories that inspired me.)

        Today’s story is another that’s inspired by elements of medieval folklore - particularly some of the botanical creatures found in travelers’ tales and marginalia - rather than by a particular fairy tale.  (However, it does also include yet another nod to “The Sleeping Beauty.”)  Here’s how it begins…

        Rich volcanic soil, moderate rainfall, and favorable agricultural regulations make the town of Arylli the perfect place for growing snapdragons – but it wasn’t always this way.  When Zorzi Ombor brought home a potted vegetable lamb (Agnifera borometz) from the Sorcerers’ Market in Rabo, his neighbors raised their eyebrows.  When his wife Aldita planted barnacle goose trees (Branta arborescens) among the almonds in their orchard, the townsfolk shook their heads.  And when Zorzi and Aldita began cultivating snapdragons (Dracophytum folium), the town fathers took a stand.

        Three of the most respected councilors called on the Ombors one afternoon in July.  Half a dozen vegetable lambs now lined the path to their cottage, grazing meditatively, each within the circuit of its long, flexible stem.  The soft cheeping of barnacle geese still inside their shells could be heard from the orchard on the low hillside behind the house.  To the side of the shed, however, the councilors could see the field of snapdragons.

        The snapdragons could see the councilors, too, and their narrow heads rose up on sinuous necks, turning like sunflowers to keep glowing yellow eyes fixed on the visitors.  One or two hissed softly, thin green tendrils escaping from their thorny jaws like steam.  The councilors crowded together on the path and hurried up to the Ombors’ door.

        “People don’t like them,” Councilor Polo Talig explained, “They’re a menace to the town.”

        “How?” asked Zorzi, as Aldita offered the visitors her famous almond shortbread.

        “Well, the teeth, for one thing.”

        “Nobody objects to rose bushes.”

        “And the vines they breathe out.”

        “Nobody objects to sweet peas.”

        “But they stare at people.  They’re clearly hostile!”

        “Nobody objects to cats.”

        “Look, Zorzi,” Polo insisted, “We know you like your specialty crops, and we’ve tried to be tolerant.  Really we have.”  He looked at the other councilors for support.  “But these dragon plant things are just too much.  We’ve gotten too many complaints.  They’re going to have to go.”

        “Go where?” asked Zorzi. 

        You can read about two of the three species mentioned in the excerpt above at these prior posts: The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary

        Magical Botany B

        Those two marvels both appear in travelers’ tales and people believed they existed in far-flung locales.  As for the Dracophytum folium, on the other hand, that’s inspired by marginalia.  If you’re not familiar with that term, consider it a Word of the Month: it means decorations or writing in the margins of a manuscript.  Marginalia can range from translations, commentary, and helpful diagrams, to elaborate decor to mere doodlings.  The marginalia in medieval illuminated manuscripts can be absolutely gorgeous, but even when it’s a deliberate part of a book’s design and decor, it usually has nothing at all to do with the subject or content of the book.  That left those medieval illuminators free to decorate margins with whatever strange and sometimes downright unhinged images came into their heads.  If you want to see some of the weirder marginal monsters, check out my 2022 A to Z posts on Z is for Zany and X is for Variables.  Of course I’m always on the lookout for dragons, and when I discovered a couple of dragons breathing out vines, I was quite taken with them.  Here are a couple of the dragons that inspired me, one breathing vines, the other with a viny tail.  So I made a botanical dragon of my own.  And if you want a coloring page of my design, you can download it here, as a little celebratory gift for reaching the end of the 2026 A to Z Blog Challenge!

        The moral of Zorzi and Aldita and their snapdragons is that there can be definite advantages to remaining unnoticed.

        Also, on the other hand, there can be definite advantages to being unique and special.

        I don’t have any Dracophytum folium, but I do have a collection of carnivorous plants!  Do  you have any unusual plants or pets?

[Picture: Dracophytum Folium, rubber block print by AEGNydam, 2020 (Image from Beyond Pomegranate & Thorns);

Marginal decoration from Hebrew Festival prayer book, Italian, 3rd quarter of the 15th century (Image from the British Library);

Decoration from Book of Hours, Netherlands or Germany, mid-15th century (Image from the British Library);

Venus fly trap, pitcher plant, and sundew, photos by AEGNydam, 2026.]