Calathea musaica

Calathea musaica, also known as Mosaic Calathea, is a plant that evokes a sense of fantasy science fiction for me.

The intricate lines on its leaves are reminiscent of the patterns seen on a spectrograph.

The weird science take on it, is based on a concept from a fantasy science fiction story I once read. Although I can’t recall the name or author, the story’s premise has stayed with me. It involved an ancient civilization that sought to preserve knowledge for future generations by encoding information in the genes of living creatures. I often imagine that the leaves of this plant resemble a form of writing. A message from the far past.

If only we could decode the language that the message is written in :-)