DESIGN FICTION: Birth Flower
DESIGN FICTION: BIRTH FLOWER
Madrid, 2034
2033 was the year of the See-Me-Not. A beautiful stifling year on the plains of Toledo when the See-Me-Not was seen and seen fully.
Gyrocaryum oppositifolium Valdés had been endangered in the 2020s. Dramatically so. Despite conservationists best efforts to preserve and protect its genetic diversity, the See-Me-Not very rapidly lived up to its name.
The death of a 27 million years-old flower is a tragedy. A tragedy made more tragic still by its isolated position on the tree of life. Sitting, alone as the single species in the Gyrocarum genus, the morphologic peculiarity of its fruits is a beacon to its uniqueness.
The See-Me-Not was a plant worth protecting.
Remarkably, this protection may be an unusual case of conservation that was too successful. How did it happen? Given its 'worth-protecting' status, it was assigned to proportionately more citizens. A little over 0.05% of Spaniards were assigned See-Me-Not as Birthflower. But a rather powerful cohort it turned out to be.
Perhaps the drama of the See-Me-Not was due to the Birthflower Ceremony. The government plan had been to register BirthFlowers for each new birth in Iberia to foster an affinity between the population and their natural environment. A beautiful concept. And one that was met with unexpected enthusiasm in a country not especially renowned for its love of nature.
The wrinkle with the See-Me-Not was that many adults wanted BirthFlowers also. They loved the idea and wished they themselves could forge a more intimate relationship with the herbiculture of their local landscape. So the Ministry for Nurturing the Relationship with Nature updated the database; assigning Birthflowers retrospectively for the adult population.
Like anything, not everyone takes their duties seriously. And some, take them very seriously indeed. And seriousness becomes more serious still when competition is involved.
And so the story of the See-Me-Not is the story of Juan Marcos Alba and Alberto Alvarez. Two Castilian billionaires; two men randomly assigned the inconspicuous Birthflower of Gyrocaryum oppositifolium Valdes.
The See-Me-Not won the lottery with one billionaire patron. It won it twice with two. But the one-upmanship that blossomed between the retail magnates was something else entirely.
Alba started it when he announced the creation of a vast farming and replanting initiative outside Leon in early August 2029. In a single act of environmental benevolence he wished to turn around the fate of the forgotten cousin of the Forget-me-Not. The See-Me-Not would be forever associated with Alba. It's 27 million year fate entangled with this singular man. An inspiring story of Homo Sapiens nurturing the natural world.
But inspiration breeds jealousy too and Alberto Alvarez could not live with the idea that his BirthFlower would be synonymous with his contemporary and rival. He lobbied privately to have his Birthflower changed. This was not possible the bureaucracy said; it would undermine the program and lead to complaints and petitions by those would wished for the more beautiful extravagant and elegant flora. This would introduce clear bias into the natural world, disrupting nature once again.
Birthflower assignment must be random, and it must be irreversible. Even for Billionaires.
Especially for Billionaires.
So Alvarez was stuck with the See-Me-Not and the shadow of Alba above it.
In March 2030, at a vast vineyard turned 'plant nursery', he held a press conference of his own. He had funded a new organisation of See-Me-Not conservation. They would repopulate hinterlands of Madrid and Sevilla in magnificent numbers. The See-Me-Not would blanket not only natural areas, but roadsides, parks and commercial property. This would be boosted by donations from his clothing empire (Destino, Flor Tenue and Pluma).
Donations flooded in.
Not least because the See-Me-Not motif was intertwined with that seasons fashions. The brand redesign of Flor Tenue even had the See-Me-Not as its icon and appeared entangled with the logo.
The See-Me-Not was in the limelight.
The story continued as any story of one-upmanship does. By 2033, the See-Me-Not was everywhere. Its resurgence was noted far beyond the Iberian peninsula too. Botanical Data Scientists in Greece, Algeria and Azerbaijan noted upticks of over 1000% in See-Me-Not in the wild. It's not clear if that was natural pollination or copycat efforts. Likely it was the latter. 2033 was the Year of the See-Me-Not.
Soon, the See-Me-Not will need to be contained, reduced, pruned. It is stifling its competitor species. The Narcissus minor asturiensis, Hypericum pulchrum and Campanula patula - all driven to the edge of extinction by the benevolent vanity of two great men.
But that is a story for another day.