Have been traveling through Alsace, Lorraine, Luxembourg, Eifel and Westerwald. Now back to Malta. I brought a few new toys. One of them a Selaginella lepidophylla, a resurrection plant, which I found in Maria Laach Abby (Germany). It cannot store water, and looks like a dead part of a bush. But when water applied, it opens into a star shape flower after a few hours. Then it needs to dry up again and retracts. The process can be repeated many times. I will store mine in the wardrobe first, as it is supposed to repel bugs also. And I will play with it in winter and I am planning to make a time-laps video clip of the opening. It seems that the plant can stay even for years in the dry condition. This is one difference to a similar plant from the Middle East and North Africa, called the "Rose of Jericho", which only lasts one year. Mine comes from the Mexican desert. Obviously, this is a plant which attracts quite a bit of symbolism, and has common names like Flower of Stone, Rose of Jericho, Resurrection Moss, Dinosaur plant, Siempre Viva, Stone Flower, and Doradilla.

Selaginella lepidophylla under dry conditions