玉蝴蝶

I picked up a few mature pods which had fallen off the whimsical-looking Indian Trumpet (Oroxylum indicum) tree on the roadside and harvested a bagful of its lovely seeds to make enough tonic infusions to last me for a month (if I drink it every day, that is:)

The Chinese name of the plant which literally translates as "jade butterfly" sounds poetic and perfectly depicts the spectacle when a pod on the tree bursts open to set free a swarm of "butterflies"...