Spiritual significance of flowers, Balloon-flower = Platycodon grandiflorus, Campanulaceae

449 — Number of the plant

at the book: The Mother. The Spiritual Significance of Flowers.- 1-st Ed. / Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, Pondicherry (India).- Singapore: Ho Printing, 2000.- ISBN 81-7058-609-7

Classification

► Division Magnoliophyta - Flowering plants

► Class Magnoliopsida - Dicotyledons

► Subclass Asteridae

► Order Campanulales

► Family Campanulaceae - Bellflower family

► Subfamily Campanuloideae

► Genus Platycodon A. DC. - Platycodon

Synonyms

(=) Campanula glauca Thunb.

≡ Campanula grandiflora (basinom) Jacq.

(=) Platycodon glaucus (Thunb.) Nakai

Common names

Balloon-flower (English)

Chinese-bellflower (English)

Fuji blue balloon flower (English)

Fuji blue balloonflower (English)

Fuji blue Chinese bellflower (English)

Fuji blue Japanese bellflower (English)

Japanese bellflower (English)

Platycodon (English)

Ballon (Fleur) (French)

Campanule (French)

Campanule de Chine (French)

Fleur ballon (French)

Jie geng (Chinese)

Kikyo (Japanese)

Toraji (Korean)

Description

Medium-sized open funnelform lavender blue flower with deeper coloured veins and a double five-lobed corolla; borne singly. A low spreading perennial herb.

This is the complete negation of "bluff". I find it very beautiful. When I saw this flower, it struck me as something very profound, very calm – absolutely sure, immobile. I don't know why, but the longer I looked at it, the more it gave that impression and when I was asked its significance, I said, "Unostentatious Certitude." It's what one might call a superlative good-taste in the realm of spiritual experience: something with greater content than it expresses.