The herb layer of the Dehesa is waking up.
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Those first hints of green are now resolving into one of the greatest wild floral spectacles of Europe.
In late November, a wave of yellow is enlivening the landscape as it seeps out from under bush and crevice.
This is the Autumn Buttercup or the Flor de San Diego as it is known here.
For a brief while it will grace the forest floor and then seemingly disappear.
Though it will leave no trace for our eyes, its latency will fill the fecund earth until the time for its returning.
Like many things then, it never really leaves us and its brief magnificence is balm to our memories during the time of its dormancy.
This beauty is one of natures gifts to our knowing souls.
Photo credits: Ranunculus Bullatus in the Dehesa. Courtesy of the author.