路邊的"紫羅蘭" Loving Violet

<Scroll down for English version> 每逢春天，萬物重生，路邊的小花 “蔓堇菜Viola diffusa” 也爭相開放。也許驟眼望去並不出眾，甚至覺得是無關重要的野花，但將花朵放大一看，是否有幾分像蘭花呢？拉丁屬名Viola和英文名Spreading Violet中的Violet，令人聯想到大部分堇菜家族的花都有獨特的淡紫色。

《詩經》中 “周原膴膴 ，堇荼如飴 ”，表示古人曾將“堇”作為野菜。但古代沒有嚴謹的植物分類，而且堇菜的家族有多個成員，甚至混淆家族以外的花，所以大家不要胡亂試食。

大家行山時，不妨放慢腳步，留意一下腳邊的植物！

(另外一提，版主偏愛小花，以蔓堇菜由甚，所以專頁頭像也一直用蔓堇菜的花朵呢。)

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Slow down, enjoy nature.

Spring is a time of renewal. The native Spreading Violets (Viola diffusa) have blossomed along the hiking trail at the backyard. The Spreading Violet is a small herb and perhaps is not really engaging. But you must love its special violet colour if you take a close look at the flower.

The family of Violaceae is also one kind of edible plants in the wild as mentioned in Shijing, the oldest collection of Chinese poetry. But I should still warn you not to try any unknown plants in the wild.

(*I love tiny flowers andViola diffusa the most. You should already note it from my profile picture. )

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Reference:

1. 《詩經·大雅·綿》(Extract from Shijing) http://hk.chiculture.net/0402/html/c02/0402c02.html

2. 香港植物標本室Hong Kong Herbarium http://herbarium.gov.hk/subpages.aspx?id=7695