For reference, here's the grand finale to the ED sequence from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (YouTube)...
The plant in the photo is Dactylopsis digitata, a deeply peculiar native of the quartz flats of the Knersvlakte region of western South Africa. It's in full bloom and quite healthy, just a bit wilted and yellowed as it begins a long summer dormancy. The photo was taken by DJ Ambient, while he was visiting Mesa Garden, in June of 2005. DJ Ambient--who I know through botanical channels--emailed it to me out of the blue, simply because he thought I'd be interested in a good image of a plant that almost nobody cultivates. He noticed a funny resemblance to people dancing, but certainly knew nothing of Haruhi. The image has been 'shopped, but only in order to remove a busy background (the original can be seen here).The match isn't exact--Dactylopsis Kyon and Koizumi are facing the wrong ways, and there's a blurry extra stem behind Dactylopsis Haruhi--but it's pretty close. It's more convincing, I think, than the water-stain Marian apparitions that reporters puzzle over on slow news days. What are the chances that five stems on the plant would grow that way, that someone would take a picture at just the right stage of the plant's senescence, and that it would get emailed to a person who would understand its significance, two years later? The mind boggles. I'm converting to Haruhi-ism.
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