A maverick, nonconformist, rogue pansy, growing away from its designated flowerbed outside the Otago Settlers Museum, and instead at the base of a cabbage tree on the lawn.
From some angles, it appeared to be gazing up at the tree, as if it yearned for a different life; one of perching wood pigeons, a shock of leaves, great height and longevity.
How unlikely is that?
Flower plots overseen by Dunedin City Council contractor Delta Utilities, including the ones nearest this pansy, are planned to the centimetre by a "bedding team" six months in advance, and the plans must be approved by DCC parks and reserves team leader Martin Thompson.
The results are floral militias: regimented, orderly, daintily coloured.
Last year, purple and white pansies in a bed in Anzac Square, outside the Dunedin Railway Station, were even ordered into formation as the Cadbury logo to celebrate the company's chocolate carnival.
In the winter-to-spring season this year, Mr Thompson said, members of the public should keep an eye out for flower formations that illustrate the Year of Biodiversity.
Yes, the planning of flowerbeds is a precise art and great discipline is expected of the plants involved.
Deserter pansies such as this are highly unlikely.
So how did it get there?
The seed from which this plant grew probably arrived with the soil for the winter-to-spring bedding plot, as the flower was the same colour as the ones growing in neat rows nearby.
A seed would have blown astray or been dropped as the Delta people put seedlings in the bed.
When was it spotted?
September.
Is it still there?
No. Life is fleeting for a pansy. And besides, the bed designs are changed for the summer.