observing the magnolia

Large magnolia trees grow outside my new office. I see their dark leaves and large white blossoms from my window, and walk under them on my way in and out each day. When we first moved in, the flowers were bright and fresh, but lately they've begun to wilt and then drop their stamens to the ground.

You can see the little anther head peeking up from the center of the flower.

When they fall, I like to pick them up. The seeds are fuzzy and so closely packed. It feels like a little paw.

 I kept one that I picked up on my desk at work. It had the anther and pistil of the stamen and was absolutely fascinating. At home last night, I was thinking about these curious plants and decided to try to draw the stamen from memory. This is how I drew it:

And this is how it actually looked when I checked today:

All dressed up with fishnet stockings! Elegant!

Not quite right, is it? The real one has so many more details that I neglected in my sketch. The anther looks really fuzzy and the seed bits look like claws, whereas I drew more of an asparagus head with strawberry seeds. I forgot the ridge around the middle and quickied the net "stockings" even though they're one of my favorite parts.

It was fun to check my powers of observation and memory, however. A good drawing game I'd like to try again!