Shrubs, deciduous and evergreen
View allAll Photos Tagged Shrub,
Switzerland, May 2021
My best photos are here: www.lacerta-bilineata.com/ticino-best-photos-of-southern-...
My latest ANIMAL VIDEO (warning, it's a bit shocking): www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T2-Xszz7FI
You find a selection of my 80 BEST PHOTOS (mostly not yet on Flickr) here: www.lacerta-bilineata.com/western-green-lizard-lacerta-bi... (the website exists in ESPAÑOL, FRANÇAIS, ITALIANO, ENGLISH, DEUTSCH)
ABOUT THE PHOTO:
So this photo is a bit of a novelty for me - at least here on Flickr, but it's also a journey back in time in a sense. I've always loved b/w and sepia photography; already as a very young teenager I would go out into the woods with an old Pentax Spotmatic (which I had nicked from my father) whenever it was a foggy day to shoot b/w compositions of sunbeams cutting through the ghostlike trees.
I used films with a sensitivity of at least 1600 (for those of you who remember what that means 😉 ), and the resulting photos had an incredibly fine grain which I loved; I blew them up to the size of posters and hung them on the walls of my teenage man-cave next to Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Slash.
But then I abandoned photography altogether for 20 years, and when I finally picked up a camera again, it was one of the digital kind. Now neither film nor grain played any role in my photographic endeavours - let alone b/w compositions: because the reason I fell in love with shooting pictures once more was the rare and incredibly colorful lizard species that had chosen my garden as its habitat.
It's this species - the Lacerta bilineata aka the western green lizard - that my photo website www.lacerta-bilineata.com/ and also my Flickr gallery are dedicated to, but I've since expanded that theme a bit so that it now comprises the whole Lacerta bilineata habitat, which is to say my garden and its immediate surroundings and all the flora and fauna I find in it.
I like that my gallery and the website have this clear theme, because in order to rise to the challenge of portraying all aspects of a very specific little eco system (which also happens to be my home of sorts), it forces me to constantly explore it from fresh angles, and I keep discovering fascinating new motives as my photographic journey continues.
Which brings me to the horse pasture you see in this photo. This playground for happy horsies lies just outside my garden, and it normally only interests me insofar as my green reptile friends claim parts of it as their territory, and I very much prefer it to be horseless (which it thankfully often is).
Not that the horses bother the reptiles - the lizards don't mind them one bit, and I've even seen them jump from the safety of the fly honeysuckle shrub which the pasture borders on right between the deadly looking hooves of the horses to forage for snails, without any sign of fear or even respect.
No, the reason I have a very conflicted relationship with those horses is that they are mighty cute and that there's usually also foals. The sight of those beautiful, happy animals jumping around and frolicking (it's a huge pasture and you can tell the horses really love it) is irresistible: and that inevitably attracts what in the entire universe is known as the most destructive anti-matter and ultimate undoing of any nature photographer: other humans.
Unlike with the horses, the lizards ARE indeed very much bothered by specimens of loud, unpredictable Homo sapiens sapiens - which makes those (and by extension also the horses) the cryptonite of this here reptile photographer. It's not the horses' fault, I know that, but that doesn't change a thing. I'm just telling you how it is (and some of you might have read about the traumatic events I had to endure to get a particular photo - if not, read at your own risk here: www.flickr.com/photos/191055893@N07/51405389883/in/datepo... - which clearly demonstrated that even when it's entirely horseless, that pasture is still a threat for artistic endeavours).
But back to the photo. So one morning during my vacation back in May I got up quite early. It had rained all night, and now the fog was creeping up from the valley below to our village just as the sky cleared up and the morning sun started to shine through the trees.
And just as I did when I was a teenager I grabbed my camera and ran out to photograph this beautiful mood of ghostlike trees and sunbeams cutting through the mist. There had already been such a day a week earlier (which is when I took this photo: www.flickr.com/photos/191055893@N07/51543603732/in/datepo... ), but this time, the horses were also there.
Because of our slightly strained relationship I only took this one photo of them (I now wish I had taken more: talk about missed opportunities), and otherwise concentrated on the landscape. It was only later when I went through all the photos on my computer that I realized that I actually really liked those horses, even despite the whole composition being such a cliché. And I realized another thing: when I drained the photo of all the color, I liked it even better - because there was almost a bit of grain in it, like in the photos from my youth.
Since then I have experimented quite a bit with b/w and sepia compositions (some of which I will upload here eventually I guess), but this photo here is the first one that helped me rediscover my old passion. I hope you like it even though it builds quite a stark contrast with the rest of my tiny - and very colorful - gallery. But in the spirit of showing you the whole Lacerta bilineata habitat (and also in the spirit of expanding my gallery a bit beyond lizards and insects), I think it's not such a bad fit.
As always, many greetings to all of you, have a wonderful day and don't hesitate to let me know what you think 😊
At Joshua Tree Park, they are found in abundance. The valley is called Yucca valley after it. In the background are million year old rocky outcrops that are really fascinating.
Dasiphora is a genus of three species of shrubs in the rose family Rosaceae, native to Asia, with one species D. fruticosa, ranging across the entire cool temperate Northern Hemisphere. In the past, the genus was normally included in Potentilla as Potentilla sect. Rhopalostylae, but genetic evidence has shown it to
A woody perennial flowering plant of the genus Rosa, in the family Rosaceae. There are over three hundred species and thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be erect shrubs, climbing, or trailing, with stems that are often armed with sharp prickles. Flowers vary in size and shape and are usually large and showy, in colours ranging from white through yellows and reds. Most species are native to Asia, with smaller numbers native to Europe, North America, and northwestern Africa. Species, cultivars and hybrids are all widely grown for their beauty and often are fragrant. Roses have acquired cultural significance in many societies. Rose plants range in size from compact, miniature roses, to climbers that can reach seven meters in height. Different species hybridize easily, and this has been used in the development of the wide range of garden roses. 50222
A rose is a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus Rosa, in the family Rosaceae. There are over three hundred species and thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be erect shrubs, climbing, or trailing, with stems that are often armed with sharp prickles. Flowers vary in size and shape and are usually large and showy, in colours ranging from white through yellows and reds. Most species are native to Asia, with smaller numbers native to Europe, North America, and northwestern Africa. Species, cultivars and hybrids are all widely grown for their beauty and often are fragrant. Roses have acquired cultural significance in many societies. Rose plants range in size from compact, miniature roses, to climbers that can reach seven meters in height. Different species hybridize easily, and this has been used in the development of the wide range of garden roses. 47752
I planted it years ago as a little offspring, never knowing the name. It grew to a shrub which blooms every springtime in out courtyard.
Thanks to Anke, she knew it! : Philadelphus
Danke, AnKe konnte er identifiziert werden: „Schneesturm“ Gefüllter Gartenjasmin!
©This photo is the property of Helga Bruchmann. Please do not use my photos for sharing, printing or for any other purpose without my written permission. Thank you!
Its devilish cultivar name (via Spanish) refers to the dark purplish leaves that this shrub bears in spring, with dark colors being loosely associated with the devil.
The common name "ninebark" comes from the plant's peeling bark. Several shades of brown are displayed as it peels. As an outer layer of bark peels, a new layer with a slightly different color is revealed. The "nine" refers to the number of such layers, although nine seems to be an arbitrary figure.
Written by David Beaulieu
A woody perennial flowering plant of the genus Rosa, in the family Rosaceae. There are over three hundred species and thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be erect shrubs, climbing, or trailing, with stems that are often armed with sharp prickles. Flowers vary in size and shape and are usually large and showy, in colours ranging from white through yellows and reds. Most species are native to Asia, with smaller numbers native to Europe, North America, and northwestern Africa. Species, cultivars and hybrids are all widely grown for their beauty and often are fragrant. Roses have acquired cultural significance in many societies. Rose plants range in size from compact, miniature roses, to climbers that can reach seven meters in height. Different species hybridize easily, and this has been used in the development of the wide range of garden roses. 18480
Stonechat - Saxicola Torquata
The stonechat is 11.5–13 cm long and weighs 13–17 g, slightly smaller than the European robin. Both sexes have distinctively short wings, shorter than those of the more migratory whinchat and Siberian stonechat.
The summer male has black upperparts, a black head, an orange throat and breast, and a white belly and vent. It also has a white half-collar on the sides of its neck, a small white scapular patch on the wings, and a very small white patch on the rump often streaked with black. The female has brown upperparts and head, and no white neck patches, rump or belly, these areas being streaked dark brown on paler brown, the only white being the scapular patch on the wings and even this often being buffy-white.
European stonechats breed in heathland, coastal dunes and rough grassland with scattered small shrubs and bramble, open gorse, tussocks or heather. They are short-distance migrants or non-migratory, with part of the population (particularly from northeastern parts of the range, where winters are colder) moving south to winter further south in Europe and more widely in north Africa.
Population:
UK breeding:
59,000 pairs
That is why the wise man is invariably called the fool :-)
Martin H. Fischer (1879–1962)
HPPT!! take care friends:-)
shrub rose, in the neighborhood, cry, north carolina
Ceanothus are arguably the best blue-flowered hardy shrubs in the UK. The evergreen types provide fantastically dark-green glossy leaves throughout the year and blue flowers are produced in profusion in spring or summer., They are also known as "Californian Lilac"
SEWERAGE WORKS, a local capture, where there are flies, often many birds are found, and it was good to capture my first Chiffchaff of the year here. A tiny warbler that is perhaps best known for its onomatopoeic song "Chiffchaff, Chiffchaff !" The bill is thin and needle-like while the legs are black, it is mainly a summer visitor to the Southern half of the UK and mainly associated with mature deciduous woodland with a dense understorey of shrubs. Regret to say this bird was a bit over the top of me for a decent image.
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THANK YOU for your friendship, enjoy the weekend, stay safe and well...................................God bless you Tomx.
This dragonfly posed for a portrait while I was walking a path through shrubs and wildflowers. On my return it landed again, on cue, as though it had a yen for the spotlight.
Dull gray-brown bulbul with a black head and bright white cheek patch. Also note yellow vent and white tail tip. A lowland species of dry forests, scrub, forest edge, parks, and gardens; can be quite common in cities and towns in parts of its range. Song brief but pleasant and fluid. Gives low raspy “chuk” as well as mellower call notes similar to components of its song. (eBird)
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A small flock of bulbuls flew into the shrubs lining the entry to the wetlands. They took one look at us and decided that we were not interesting enough to stick around for. This was the only one to stay still long enough for photos and for all but this shot, hid his face behind the leaves.
Ras al-Khor Wildlife Sanctuary, Dubai, UAE. March 2014.
Camellia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. Camellias are evergreen shrubs or small trees up to 20 m tall. They are found in eastern and southern Asia, from the Himalayas east to Japan and Indonesia. There are about 300 species and around 3,000 hybrids. Their flowers are usually large and conspicuous, one to 12 cm in diameter, with five to nine petals in naturally occurring species of camellias. The colors of the flowers vary from white through pink colours to red. Of economic importance in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Indian subcontinent, leaves of C. sinensis are processed to create the popular beverage tea. The ornamental C. japonica, C. sasanqua and their hybrids are the source of hundreds of garden cultivars. C. oleifera produces tea seed oil, used in cooking and cosmetics. The various species of camellia plants are generally well-adapted to acid soils rich in humus, and most species do not grow well on chalky soil or other calcium-rich soils. Most species of camellias also require a large amount of water, either from natural rainfall or from irrigation, and the plants will not tolerate droughts. However, some of the more unusual camellias – typically species from karst soils in Vietnam – can grow without too much water. 34301