View allAll Photos Tagged Uncoiling
Angiopteris evecta is a very large fern found in parts of Southeast Asia and the western Pacific. It is naturalised in Hawaii, Jamaica, Costa Rica and Cuba. Common names in English include King fern, Giant fern, Elephant fern, Oriental Vessel fern, Madagascar tree fern, and Mule's Foot fern. Angiopteris evecta is a self-supporting evergreen perennial fern with very large bipinnate fronds. The massive trunk-like rhizome grows vertically up to 1.2 m high by 1 m wide. The arching, glossy green fronds, which emanate from the top of the trunk, may reach up to 2.5 m wide and 9 m long, with the fleshy green petiole (leaf stem) making up 2 m of that length. They are said to be the longest fern fronds in the world. Angiopteris evecta is native to southeast Asia, from Singapore through Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Australia to Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. It has been introduced to most of the rest of tropical Asia, as well as Madagascar and parts of the tropical Americas. 22409
© 2016 Alan Mackenzie.
www.alanmackenziephotography.com
500mm L Series lenses come in handy for deer, birds and...landscapes! I enjoy using this lens unconventionally and in my photostream you'll see photos of gates, bluebells, uncoiling ferns, foxgloves and tree branches taken at 500mm. This tranquil scene on the South Downs came about when the sun emerged after a cloudy interval lasting an hour.
© 2016 Alan Mackenzie.
www.alanmackenziephotography.com
Uncoiling fern and bluebells in a West Sussex woodland. Taking photos from near ground level is uncomfortable and awkward, but worth it for something different.
I can see a few things in the uncoiling fern. The most obvious is the Number 9. I can also see an Ammonite and a Sea Horse. Can you think of anything else?
Bird's nest fungi's fruiting bodies resemble tiny egg-filled bird nests. They are easily overlooked because of their tiny size (7mm or 1/4 inch across). Young specimens have a thin layer of tissue covering the cup's top. It wears off at maturity to expose the disc-shaped spore parcels within. The smooth inner walls of the fruiting body and the combined effect of the crucible shape and internal wall angle produce a good splash action. The force of the falling water splashes out the "egg" uncoiling and snapping the funiculus, the cord that connects it to the fruiting body. As the egg continues its flight, the cord extends to its full length. The sticky end of the cord may adhere to a leaf or a twig some distance away, and the egg may end up being wrapped around or hanging down the object to which the funiculus is stuck. The spores can germinate when the thick outer wall of the "egg" wears away, or the egg may be eaten by a herbivorous animal, and ultimately passed through its digestive system. Recently New Zealand collected specimen of C. laeve had the name changed to C. simile. I have not caught up with the rationale for this.
Fiddleneck is a humble plant with tiny blooms. The blooms project from a coiled fiddle scroll.
It thrives in disturbed and waste places from British Columbia to California.
Thanks for having a look.
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I spent last week in a beautiful Sussex bluebell woodland. It's a small scale landscape, with meandering streams set in a valley. I just timed it right to capture uncoiling ferns accompanied by the vivid colour of bluebells when they first flower.
A fascinatingly beautiful plant from Spain, Portugal and Morocco, this is similar to a sundew in that it captures insect prey using tentacles tipped with sticky glue.
It is unique however, in the way unfurls its leaves with the spiral uncoiling from the outside, as opposed to the spiral emerging from the inside of the leaf, like a fern. This is known as reverse circinate vernation, and is only found in 3 related plant genera - Drosophyllum, Tripyophyllum, and Byblis - which are all carnivorous.
This plant is only a seedling - that unfurling leaf is only its third leaf. It's got a way to go, but they can become small shrubs at a few years old!
A fern from the gardens begins the process of uncoiling its fronds.
Heat indexes of over 100 today! Yikes!
Bracken fern
From the vortex of space time,
Spiraling through galaxies,
Through genes in an ancient plant form,
Now spiraling forth into the now
Absorbing the sun to develop the genes.
Forth comes a fractal math gem
With the Fibonacci sequence.
Uncoiling like an infant's finger
Reaching out to the miraculous moment.
Uncoiling its drinking straw to take the nectar on a wild-growing Buddleja in Hampshire. Speyeria aglaja.
Puss Moth - Cerura vinula
On one of my usual weekend ambles round Silverlink Park in Newcastle upon Tyne I was investigate a willow tree when I spotted something behind a half eaten leaf.
Twisting the branch round this stunning caterpillar, one I’d always hoped to find, was revealed.
The disturbance triggered its display posture, rearing up and uncoiling its tails, extendable flagellae to use their posh name that act as a distractant to potential predators.
The black ‘eyes’ are false, the head is actually the brown bit in the middle but again these decoys are to protect the head in an attack.
The Puss Moth that it turns into is a fluffy white moth with grey markings, the name relating to its cat-like appearance. I’ve never seen an adult so I can’t comment on that!
European Adder / vipera berus. Suffolk. 27/02/19.
A stunning male Adder captured as he started to uncoil.
He'd been basking in unseasonably strong sunshine on top of an old, vegetated wood pile. To regulate body temperature, he would occasionally retreat into a shady hole within it for a while. This was just about to happen when I made the image.
BEST VIEWED LARGE.
Back into the garden with the macro lens today and this shot of one of our sunflowers that is slowly blooming.
Last May as I was uncoiling a garden hose, I found this little jumping spider—and ran for my camera! Then in February yesterday, there he (she?) was on our front steps. I think we recognized each other!
Heliconius erato, or the red postman, is one of about 40 neotropical species of butterfly belonging to the genus Heliconius. It is also commonly known as the small postman, the red passion flower butterfly, or the crimson-patched longwing. It was described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.
H. erato exhibits Müllerian mimicry with other Heliconius butterflies such as Heliconius melpomene in order to warn common predators against attacking, which contributes to its surprising longevity. It also has a unique mating ritual involving the transfer of anti-aphrodisiacs from males to females.
H. erato is a neotropical species, found from southern Texas to northern Argentina and Paraguay, and resides on the edges of tropical rainforests. It is philopatric, having a particularly restricted home range. In areas of dense population in Trinidad, some home ranges are only separated by 30 yards, but H. erato rarely travels to neighboring home ranges.
Larvae feed on the host plant, first consuming the terminal bud. After they have exhausted the resources of the plant they have hatched on, later instars may move to another plant.
H. erato is a pollen-feeding species, collecting from the Lantana camara flower. They do not spend much time or energy collecting nectar (only remaining for a few seconds). Instead, they collect pollen in a mass on the ventral side of their proboscis. They then agitate the pollen by coiling and uncoiling their proboscis in order to release its nutrients. H. erato is then able to extract nitrogenous compounds in a clear liquid, including amino acids like arginine, leucine, lysine, valine, proline, histidine, isoleucine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, and tryptophan. Females typically carry larger loads of pollen than males as females require more amino acids for egg production.
For more information, please visit en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliconius_erato
Last May as I was uncoiling a garden hose, I found this little jumping spider—and ran for my camera! Then in February yesterday, there he (she?) was on our front steps. I think we recognized each other!
Last May as I was uncoiling a garden hose, I found this little jumping spider—and ran for my camera! Then in February yesterday, there he (she?) was on our front steps. I think we recognized each other! Well, hi there!
Early spring in the Otways means that the ferns unfurling are easier to find. I needed a bit more light and my macro lens but this was oaky given these limitations.
Another example of an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly (Papilio glaucus), this time caught hanging from a lower flower. Look closely and you can see it's long tongue called the proboscis. It acts basically like a straw and is used by uncoiling it into the flowers to get the nectar from the plant. This Tiger Swallowtail seemed to prefer the lower branches of my butterfly bush (Buddleia).
Don't feel that you must use a macro lens to be able to capture some wonderful close-ups of flowers or insects. I used my Sigma 24-105 lens at it's longest zoom to snap this image. It's a great lens that has a fairly short minimal distance requirement of about 18 inches (45cm), which lets me get fairly close to my subject (the butterfly). Unlike most macros this lens allows me to step up the aperture, depending on the availability of light, resulting in an acceptable depth of field!
This image was shot in the darker shadows of late afternoon. Even while using a fast shutter speed 0f 1/400), the f/7.1 aperture setting captured the entire body of the butterfly in focus. Had I taken the shot a bit earlier when the shadows weren't as dark, or if I used a slower shutter speed, I probably could have achieved a setting of f/11.0 to get most of the wings in focus as well.
Comments and constructive feedback are always appreciated!
Last May as I was uncoiling a garden hose, I found this little jumping spider—and ran for my camera! Then in February yesterday, there he (she?) was on our front steps. I think we recognized each other!
*
The Planet Krypton
BY LYNN EMANUEL
Outside the window the McGill smelter
sent a red dust down on the smoking yards of copper,
on the railroad tracks’ frayed ends disappeared
into the congestion of the afternoon. Ely lay dull
and scuffed: a miner’s boot toe worn away and dim,
while my mother knelt before the Philco to coax
the detonation from the static. From the Las Vegas
Tonapah Artillery and Gunnery Range the sound
of the atom bomb came biting like a swarm
of bees. We sat in the hot Nevada dark, delighted,
when the switch was tripped and the bomb hoisted
up its silky, hooded, glittering, uncoiling length;
it hissed and spit, it sizzled like a poker in a toddy.
The bomb was no mind and all body; it sent a fire
of static down the spine. In the dark it glowed like the coils
of an electric stove. It stripped every leaf from every
branch until a willow by a creek was a bouquet
of switches resinous, naked, flexible, and fine.
Bathed in the light of KDWN, Las Vegas,
my crouched mother looked radioactive, swampy,
glaucous, like something from the Planet Krypton.
In the suave, brilliant wattage of the bomb, we were
not poor. In the atom’s fizz and pop we heard possibility
uncorked. Taffeta wraps whispered on davenports.
A new planet bloomed above us; in its light
the stumps of cut pine gleamed like dinner plates.
The world was beginning all over again, fresh and hot;
we could have anything we wanted.
. . .
Lynn Emanuel, “The Planet Krypton” from The Dig. Copyright © 1984, 1992, 1995 by Lynn Emanuel. Reprinted with the permission of the author and the University of Illinois Press.
Source: The Dig (University of Illinois Press, 1992)
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My 500mm lens is so good for plant subjects. Taken on the High Weald, West Sussex.
I had the chance to see this tiny flower in mass, creating a very lovely and unique landscape. So tiny and yet so beautiful...
The size of the flower: 1/4" ( 6 mm) wide. Corolla 5-lobed
The Leaves: 1-2" (2.05-5 cm) long, oblong blunt, hairy mostly stalkless.
High: 6-24" (15-60 cm)
Flowering time: May to October.
This plant loves wet places and stream sides. Introduced from Europe, and once extensively cultivated, these species are not naturalized around lakes, ponds and streams. In bud, the tightly coiled flower cluster resembles the tail of a scorpion. hence the species name.
Botanical name: Myosothis Scorpioides.
A Sprawling plant with several tiny blue and tubular flowers with golden centers, growing on small, curving divergent branches uncoiling as flowers bloom.
My photography is mostly nature. I enjoy macro photography a lot, but it is difficult to decide what a I like the most about this art.
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It's such a treat to be out photographing the Aurora under such gloriously clear skies, with the air and river so impeccably calm, with the temperature so warm (only around the freezing mark) ... Bliss for an Aurora addict.
Like an uncoiling serpent, the eastbound freight disengages itself from the Tehachapi Loop and continues towards the town about fourteen miles away.
Tehachapi, California, USA. May 2019 © David Hill
The story behind this work of art dates back to 2005, when Gayle Hermick, a Canadian sculptor, discovered CERN. “After visiting the CERN site for the first time in 2005, I was captured by the enormity of what the LHC represents – experimentation based on centuries of scientific exploration,” she recalls. “Current physics theories are based on those that came before them, which were, in turn, based on other precedents. The connections between theories weave together the story of science, creating a fabric of complex detail.”
Out of this inspiring encounter between the artist and CERN, a project was born. Baptised “Wandering the Immeasurable”, it takes the form of a ribbon of steel, endlessly coiling and uncoiling to represent infinite possibilities and spanning almost 4,000 years as it retraces part of the history of scientific and technical knowledge worldwide. “On one side of the ribbon, 396 important discoveries are inscribed in their language of origin, accompanied by the names of their discoverers,” explains Bernard Pellequer, who is in charge of the Globe’s programme of events and the realisation of this project. “The story begins with sexagesimal calculations in Mesopotamia, and ends (for the time being) with the discovery of the Higgs boson at CERN. Of course, the exploration continues, which is why the end of the ribbon remains suspended, as if awaiting future events...” Visitors can therefore retrace the history of science step by step and will find some familiar names here and there. On the other side of the ribbon, Hermick wanted to showcase the language of science. From Pythagoras’ much-loved theorem to the cryptic Standard Model Lagrangian equation, the mathematical alphabet becomes more complex the more the ribbon unwinds.
The sculpture has numerous symbolic connections to CERN, technologically above all, as the sculptor chose to work with an industrial metal, stainless steel, which had to be laser cut. From the point of view of diversity too: by granting the place of honour to men and women from around the world who have contributed to science through the ages, Hermick's work reflects the nature of CERN, whose very existence is built on international collaboration. Finally, this sculpture, like the Globe itself, acts as a bridge between science and society. “This work allows visitors to understand a part of the history of science, from its beginnings to today,” underlines Pellequer. “This educational role is also one of CERN’s fundamental aims.”
Source: CERN Bulletin (cds.cern.ch/)
The oculatum variety of Heliotropium curassavicum is much larger with thick fleshy leaves and stems more of a gray green color. The flowers are also much larger but have the same colors and uncoiling spike, a flower-studded fiddleneck. It becomes a somewhat erect shrub 2 feet (0.6 m) in height and can spread several feet along the ground. The plants are hairless, but lightly dusted with a white powder that easily rubs off. The plants colonize exposed alkaline or saline soils and the banks of streams and washes in arid western U. S. and Baja California. The name Quail’s Delight has also been used with this variety. The two versions of this plant are often confused because the observer has not seen both types.
Ferns are popping up under massive trees in California Big Trees State Park. It is interesting to see the un-coiling of ferns in their natural habitat.
© 2014 Alan Mackenzie.
www.alanmackenziephotography.com
The Canon EF 500mm f/4 L IS USM is great for portraits of wild plants and flowers. The high magnification and smooth bokeh creates a distinctive look, unobtainable with much shorter lenses.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, due to conflict with the military regime in Myanmar, many Kayan tribes fled to the Thai border area. Among the refugee camps set up there was a Long Neck section, which became a tourist site, self-sufficient on tourist revenue and not needing financial assistance. Here's some Wikipedia information about the Long Neck coiled rings:
Girls first start to wear rings when they are around 5 years old. Over the years the coil is replaced by a longer one and more turns are added. The weight of the brass pushes the collar bone down and compresses the rib cage. The neck itself is not lengthened; the appearance of a stretched neck is created by the deformation of the clavicle. Many ideas regarding why the coils are worn have been suggested, often formed by visiting anthropologists, who have hypothesized that the rings protected women from becoming slaves by making them less attractive to other tribes. It has also been suggested that the coils give the women resemblance to a dragon, an important figure in Kayan folklore. The coils might be meant to protect from tiger bites, perhaps literally, but probably symbolically.
Kayan women, when asked, acknowledge these ideas, and often say that their purpose for wearing the rings is cultural identity (one associated with beauty).
The coil, once on, is seldom removed, as the coiling and uncoiling is a lengthy procedure. It is usually only removed to be replaced by a new or longer coil. The muscles covered by the coil become weakened. Many women have removed the rings for medical examinations. Most women prefer to wear the rings once their clavicle has been lowered, as the area of the neck and collarbone often becomes bruised and discolored. Additionally, the collar feels like an integral part of the body after ten or more years of continuous wear.
In 2006 some of the younger women in Mae Hong Son started to remove their rings, either to give them the opportunity to continue their education or in protest against the exploitation of their culture and the restrictions that came with it. In late-2008 most of the young women who entered the refugee camp removed their rings.
Even the main roads hereabouts are exquisite, but I chose to go this way. It looked more interesting on the map. I'd only been once before to Aberystwyth, on one of our grim "day trips" by coach from Bristol (Burchill's, Staple Hill) in about 1960. I don't remember anything of that occasion. On a fine day of high summer we hardly passed another car on the twelve miles from Beulah to Tregaron, and then mostly at the more populated farther end. The day-glo lime green Spandex of a cyclist, glimpsed in the distance, struck the only discordant note. These days I find that rising from the driving seat at the conclusion of a long drive involves a kind of uncoiling, straightening-out process that goes on for several minutes, but once we'd arrived and found somewhere to park, Aberystwyth turned out to be a pleasing little town and I regretted that I lack the relevant volume of "Pevsner". It boasts a proper tobacconist too and the Spar at Rhayader (I came back the quick way) stocks Chimay Blonde.