Antirrhinum majus - Snapdragon

A short-lived perennial often grown as an annual, the snapdragon is celebrated for its tall spikes of flowers that open one by one from the base to the tip. When the flower’s dried seed pod is spent, it forms a shape strikingly similar to a human skull. In centuries past, this macabre resemblance led to folklore that the snapdragon could ward off evil or ill fate if planted near the home.

In this photograph, the spike leans gently, its blossoms in varying stages — some still wrapped in tight buds, others just opening. The soft light reveals their delicate folds while the still-closed flowers hint at what has yet to emerge. It is a study in transition, every bloom a step in the quiet climb toward its brief crest.

The snapdragon’s life is a sequence of openings, each flower giving way to the next until the spike is crowned in full color — only to fade and leave behind its ghostly seed heads. Captured here mid-ascent, it embodies the fragile resilience of all living things: moving steadily through each stage, knowing that every peak is already the beginning of its decline.