Lady's mantle after rain
Alchemilla mollis
Lady's Mantle · Great Dixter · 7 June 2025
A fallen petal caught in a bead of water on a leaf, its stripes bent and magnified by the droplet acting as a lens - the leaf carrying dozens more drops too small to bend anything.
The leaf is lady's mantle, and this is the plant's party trick. The surface is so water-repellent that rain and dew stand on it in beads rather than wetting it, which is why every gardener's photograph of water droplets seems to be of this one plant. The alchemists collected the drops as the purest water there was, which is where the Latin name Alchemilla comes from.
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