Source? It came from the new colony of Juno
Significance? It was an alien plant performing two
familiar tasks
Fate? It’s probably still in the Outward-Bound
office
Author’s inspiration? It seemed a good idea at the time…
First appearance? Elysian Dawn
A canary plant in the room gave early warning of pollutants, but
that was not deemed sufficient.
The canary plant was kept in
the Outward- Bound office, which was situated in a high-rise on 23rd Century
Terra. It sat quietly in a pot and had been there for some time. It didn’t
actively belong to Cornelia Conti, but there’s a good chance she was the one
who watered it.
Then her gaze landed on a flowerpot. It
was an actual physical flowerpot with an actual physical plant, a purple furry
canary plant, native to Juno in the Spiral System. It had risen to instant fame
as a visual proof of air purity. Any pathogen or corrosive or pollutant in the
air made the canary plant blush a virulent magenta and raise its leaves as if
in horror. It sat in perfectly cheerful lavender peace right now, but it was
indubitably in a flowerpot.
Cornelia has been looking
for something hidden in the office; something traditionally hidden in
accessible but not-immediately-visible places. She decides the canary plant
might well be hiding a secret, and she’s right.
The Junoese canary plant
plays a small but useful part in Elysian Dawn. It’s a visual
symbol of the future and is in fact the first alien life form encountered in the
series. It’s also an interesting example of nomenclature. Since there’s no life
of higher-intelligence on Juno before its settlement, the plant was named by
Terrans for its useful attribute once carried out by mine canaries.
The picture (obviously) isn't of the canary plant... it looks like a purple maple leaf to me. The canary plant appears in Elysian Dawn.
About the Blog
Sally is Sally Odgers; author, anthologist and reader. You can find you way into her maze of websites and blogs via the portal here.(Sally is me, by the way.)
The goal for 2017 was to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. 2017 is well behind us, but I ran out of year before running out of books. As of June 2018 I STILL hadn't run out of books, but many of those still to come are MIA by which I mean I don't have copies and remember little about them. There are more new books in the pipeline, and I'm certainly showcasing those, but in between times, I'm profiling some of my characters, places and objects. Thank you so much to everyone who's come along on this journey so far!
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