Funeral Laughter
Calendula hilarans
A marigold that sprouts only at funerals and makes the mourners remember something funny about the dead.
Sleeper's Clover
Trifolium somniferum
A clover that closes its leaves at the exact moment anyone in the building falls asleep, and opens them for dreams that go well.
Height-Mark Sorghum
Sorghum bicolor
A Javanese sorghum whose stalks stop at the exact height of any child who stands beside them, and once stopped for the night watchman.
Widow's Fern
Polypodium memorans
An ordinary fern whose fronds uncurl only near the recently bereaved — and whose genome remembers who was lost.
Lamplighter's Moss
Bryum vesperale
A cushion moss that photosynthesises from attention rather than light, and dies in rooms nobody visits.
Stranger's Cactus
Echinopsis peregrina
In 1933 a Hoyvík woman asked a court to declare her husband an impostor, though the harbour clerk, the town and his wage book all disagreed.