polymorphic photos on Flickr

Rhizocarpon-geographicum_23 by Amadej Trnkoczy

2

Rhizocarpon geographicum (L.) DC, syn.: Rhizocarpon riparium Räs

Map Lichen, DE.: Lankartenflechte

Slo.: zemljevidni skorjevec

Dat.: July 4. 2016

Lat.: 46.21318 Long.: 13.54701

Code: Bot_983/2016_IMG0758

Habitat: mountain grassland, moderately steep mountain slope, south aspect; on the border of limestone and flysh bedrock; open place, full sun, moist place; exposed to direct rain; elevation 1.400 m (4.600 feet); average precipitations ~ 3.000 mm/year, average temperature 3-5 deg C, pre-alpine phytogeographical region.

Substratum: small inclusions of hard, smooth, siliceous rock in bare, exposed calcareous (limestone or dolomite) bedrock.

Place: Mont Matajur region, next to the trail from village Livek to Mt. Matajur, west of Planina Matajur, Julian Pre-Alps, Posočje, Slovenia EC.

Comment: Rhizocarpon geographicum is beautiful, conspicuous lichen, which is very common in the regions with siliceous, acid ground. But in Slovenia it is rather a rare find because of the lack of such ground. With its bright yellow thallus, black apothecia and black prothallus and characteristically areolate pattern of the thallus, which coarsely resembles a map, it is superficially easy to determine. However the Rhizocarpon geographicum group is extremely polymorphic, still poorly understood species complex. Several taxa have been separated with slightly different chemistry, spore properties and/or habit.

The thallus of Rhizocarpon geographicum grows very slowly, only about 0.1 mm per year (Ref.4). The largest thalli can be much more than thousand years old. This slow hrouth is used in global warming studies. Retreat of glaciers can be measured by measuring thalli diameter along valleys with retreating glaciers.

Thalli up to 10 x 6 cm large.

Ref.:

(1) F.S. Dobson, Lichens, The Richmonds Publishing Ca.LTD (2005), p 386.

(2) V. Wirth, Die Flechten Baden-Württembergs, Teil.2., Ulmer (1995), p 812.

(3) V. Wirth, R. Duell, Farbatlas Flechten und Moose, Ulmer, (2000), p 137.

(4) B. Marbach, C. Kainz, Moose, Farne und Flechten, BLV Naturfürer (2002), p 90.

(5) C.W.Smith, et all, The lichens of Great Britain and Ireland, The British Lichen Society, (2009), p 800.

(6) I.M. Brodo, S.D. Sharnoff, S. Sharnoff, Lichens of North America, Yale Uni. Press (2001), p 635.

by Riccardo Cavarzeran

A common and widespread harvester ant that ranges across southern Europe and NW Africa. In the Middle East and Central Asia there are some forms which have never been taxonomically reviewed (Rigato & Toni, 2011).

Stoyanov et al. (2015) - Messor structor are harvester ants storing seeds in underground granaries. Being major seed consumers in xeric habitats they influence the vegetation by depleting and dispersing seeds (Azcarate, Peco 2003, MacMahon et al. 2000, Schlick-Steiner et al. 2005). According to Seifert (1996), Central European populations of the harvester ant genus Messor are currently considered to constitute a single species Messor structor. It has been reported that M. structor ants live mainly in polygynous colonies and could be members of unicolonial populations (Schlick-Steiner et al. 2005). Messor structor is one of the most widespread steppe species. It is well adapted to different conditions and occurs in all of Europe. In Bulgaria this ant is found all over the country in medium-sized populations and occur in plain desolate terrains, mountainous slopes, outskirts of mixed woodland zones and in open well-drained areas such as abandoned fields, pastures, and overgrown lawns.

This study examined genetic variability among populations of Messor structor from various localities (n=36 nests) in from Southern Bulgaria using isoenzymic analysis. Three of the four enzyme loci used were found to be polymorphic. Observed and expected heterozygosities (Ho and He) ranged from 0.0 to 0.111 and from 0.168 to 0.372, respectively. Nei’s (1972) genetic distance was found to range from 0.001 (between Boliarino and Lubenova mahala) to 0.462 (between Chirpan and Merichleri). The estimated mean F-IS and F-ST values from isozyme data were 0.8738 and 0.1432, respectively. Two of the studied populations were grouped separately in dendrograms as compared to all other populations which formed a large cluster consisting of three sub-clusters.

(source: AntWiki)

Rhizocarpon-geographicum_22 by Amadej Trnkoczy

Rhizocarpon geographicum (L.) DC, syn.: Rhizocarpon riparium Räs

Map Lichen, DE.: Lankartenflechte

Slo.: zemljevidni skorjevec

Dat.: July 4. 2016

Lat.: 46.21318 Long.: 13.54701

Code: Bot_983/2016_IMG0758

Habitat: mountain grassland, moderately steep mountain slope, south aspect; on the border of limestone and flysh bedrock; open place, full sun, moist place; exposed to direct rain; elevation 1.400 m (4.600 feet); average precipitations ~ 3.000 mm/year, average temperature 3-5 deg C, pre-alpine phytogeographical region.

Substratum: small inclusions of hard, smooth, siliceous rock in bare, exposed calcareous (limestone or dolomite) bedrock.

Place: Mont Matajur region, next to the trail from village Livek to Mt. Matajur, west of Planina Matajur, Julian Pre-Alps, Posočje, Slovenia EC.

Comment: Rhizocarpon geographicum is beautiful, conspicuous lichen, which is very common in the regions with siliceous, acid ground. But in Slovenia it is rather a rare find because of the lack of such ground. With its bright yellow thallus, black apothecia and black prothallus and characteristically areolate pattern of the thallus, which coarsely resembles a map, it is superficially easy to determine. However the Rhizocarpon geographicum group is extremely polymorphic, still poorly understood species complex. Several taxa have been separated with slightly different chemistry, spore properties and/or habit.

The thallus of Rhizocarpon geographicum grows very slowly, only about 0.1 mm per year (Ref.4). The largest thalli can be much more than thousand years old. This slow hrouth is used in global warming studies. Retreat of glaciers can be measured by measuring thalli diameter along valleys with retreating glaciers.

Thalli up to 10 x 6 cm large.

Ref.:

(1) F.S. Dobson, Lichens, The Richmonds Publishing Ca.LTD (2005), p 386.

(2) V. Wirth, Die Flechten Baden-Württembergs, Teil.2., Ulmer (1995), p 812.

(3) V. Wirth, R. Duell, Farbatlas Flechten und Moose, Ulmer, (2000), p 137.

(4) B. Marbach, C. Kainz, Moose, Farne und Flechten, BLV Naturfürer (2002), p 90.

(5) C.W.Smith, et all, The lichens of Great Britain and Ireland, The British Lichen Society, (2009), p 800.

(6) I.M. Brodo, S.D. Sharnoff, S. Sharnoff, Lichens of North America, Yale Uni. Press (2001), p 635.

Anish Kapoor at Lisson Gallery in Sep 2021 by Koji Moriya

1

www.lissongallery.com/exhibitions/anish-kapoor-f45a2ea5-2...

For his latest exhibition, Anish Kapoor presents a new series of paintings, an element of his practice that has rarely been seen, exploring the intimate and ritualistic nature of his work. Created over the past year, the show provides a poetic view of the artist's recent preoccupations. While painting has always been an integral part of Kapoor’s practice, this radical new body of work is both spiritual and ecstatic, showing Kapoor working in more vivid and urgent form than ever. Alongside this exhibition, a solo show dedicated to Kapoor's paintings will run at Modern Art Oxford from 2 October 2021 - 13 February 2022, and both shows precede Kapoor’s major retrospective at Gallerie dell'Accademia di Venezia, opening April 2022 to coincide with the Venice Biennale.

Through painting, Kapoor delves into the deep inner world of our mind and body, from the physical exploration of the flesh and blood, to investigating psychological concepts as primal and nameless as origin and obliteration. Since the 1980s, Kapoor has been celebrated largely as a sculptor, yet painting, and its rawest composition, colour and form, have been a fundamental element of his practice-. The presentation will feature a selection of new and recent paintings, created between 2019 and 2021, the majority in the artist’s London-based studio during the pandemic. Like the artist’s wider oeuvre, these paintings are rooted in a drive to grasp the unknown, to awaken consciousness and experiment with the phenomenology of space.

Kapoor’s work has been characterized by an intense encounter with colour and matter – manifest either through refined, reflective surfaces such as metal or mirrors, or through the tactile, sensual quality of the blankets of impasto. The magnetism of the colour red is evident in these new paintings, manifesting the elemental force that flows through us all, yet now accompanied by a new palette of telluric greys and yellows, as if witnessing a surge from the depths of the earth. Some works appear volcanic, with an intense, fiery energy, while others are more primitive and abstract, with layers of dense pigment and resin forming a sculpted solidity. Many of the paintings have a visceral outpouring where a canvas within a canvas rotates and evolves in space, seeming to defy gravity, with brushstrokes cascading over the edges like a waterfall. In others we see distorted, polymorphic figures emerging from a deep, radiant void, with a ghostly aura.

Kapoor achieves a coherence of mind and body, of interior and exterior in two of the series of works, illustrating a mythic landscape with a turbulent, ominous atmosphere that differentiates land from sky, body from space. These whirling landscapes evoke the extraordinary, eerie Romanticism of JMW Turner, a worship of nature marked through an expressive, dramatic scene. Similar in disposition are two works where we imagine the moon rising over the peak – a symbolic narrative of a new cycle, of origins and menstruation.

The wall-based paintings recall some of Kapoor’s most ambitious, distinguished works, including Svayambhu (2007), My Red Homeland (2003) and Symphony for a Beloved Sun (2013). In these floor-based works we see a more ritualistic, visceral language, where Kapoor unashamedly delves into depicting the very blood and flesh from which we are all born. Artists from Leonardo di Vinci to Francis Bacon have been fascinated with the innards of the body, be it our anatomy or the surrealist beauty in violence. The work also stands in a powerful tradition of artists exploring the human body’s expression of divine matters, yet through the unique vision of Kapoor’s Eastern and Western influences, and ---– considering the year in which they were created --– taking on new meaning highlighting the fragility of the body and self.

bhintagariyo (Gujarati: ભીંતગરીયો) by Dinesh Valke

1

ze-no-STEEJ-ee-uh or ze-no-STEG-ee-uh -- Greek: xeno (strange); stegia (covering) ... Dave's Botanary

try-den-TAY-ta -- three-toothed ... Dave's Botanary

commonly known as: narrowleaf morning glory • Bengali: হলুদ কলমি লতা holud kolmi lawta, প্রসারিণী prosharini • Gujarati: ભીંતગરીયો bhintagariyo • Hindi: प्रसारिणी prasarini • Kachchhi: ઝામરવલ jhamarval, ટોપરાવલ toparaval • Kannada: ಇಲಿಕಿವಿ ಸೊಪ್ಪು ilikivi soppu, ಪ್ರಸಾರಣಿ prasaarani • Konkani: काळी वेल kali vel • Malayalam: പ്രസാരണി prasaarani, തലനീളി thalaneeli • Marathi: काळी वेल kali vel • Odia: ପ୍ରସାରଣୀ prasarani • Rajasthani: प्रसारिणी prasarini • Sanskrit: प्रसारिणी prasarini • Tamil: முதியோர் கூந்தல் mutiyor kuntal • Telugu: లంజ సవరం lanja savaram, సీతమ్మ జడ seethamma jada, సీతమ్మ సవరం seetamma savaram, సుంచు మూతి sunchu mutthi

botanical names: Xenostegia tridentata (L.) D.F.Austin & Staples ... homotypic synonyms: Convolvulus tridentatus L. • Evolvulus tridentatus (L.) L. • Ipomoea tridentata (L.) Roth • Merremia tridentata (L.) Hallier f. ... infraspecific: Xenostegia tridentata subsp. tridentata ... and more at POWO, retrieved 07 February 2025

~~~~~ DISTRIBUTION in INDIA ~~~~~

throughout (except n-w India); including Lakshadweep islands

Names compiled / updated at Names of Plants in India.

Ophyris morisii by Gino Cherchi

1

Ophyris morisii

Endemismo sardo-corso

Sinonimi: Ophyris aranifera, Ophyris exaltata

Specie polimorfa per una frequente ibridazione con una o due specie, si pensa che si sia evoluta in qualche migliaio di anni; queste ibridazioni le rendono più resistenti delle originarie. Alcuni studiosi le farebbero risalire all Ophyris sphegodes.

Bibliografia: La flora della Sardegna.

Ophyris morisii

Sardinian-Corsican endemism

Synonyms: Ophyris aranifera, Ophyris exaltata

Polymorphic species for frequent hybridization with one or two species, it is thought that has evolved in a few thousand years; these hybrids make them more resistant to the original. Some scholars would date to the Ophyris sphegodes.

Bibliography: The flora of Sardinia.

Ophyris morisii

Endemismo sardo-corso

Sinónimos: Ophyris aranifera, Ophyris exaltata

Especies polimórficas para la hibridación frecuente con una o dos especies, se cree que ha evolucionado en unos pocos miles de años; estos híbridos hacen más resistentes a la original. Algunos estudiosos saldrían a las sphegodes Ophyris.

Bibliografía: La flora de Cerdeña.

Jump Screenshot #2 by DoctorButtsMD

A screenshot from the finished version of "Jump", a first-person shooter that I made in C# with the XNA framework. The .rar is available for download at drop.io/shaymus22/asset/jump-install-rar

Sitting in nature by davespixel8143

J20150910-0025—Corethrogyne filaginifolia—RPBG by John Rusk

9 8

Corethrogyne filaginifolia—common sandaster. All "daisy-like" species have been moved from the genus Lessingia to Corethrogyne. All subspecies are now lumped into one polymorphic species by the Jepson e-Flora and Flora of North America. Grows near the coast from Oregon southward to Southern California where the species them moves inland a considerable distance. Also found in the central and southern Sierra Nevada as well as Baja California. The insect is a western cucumber beetle (Diabrotica undecimpunctata tenella). Photographed at Regional Parks Botanic Garden located in Tilden Regional Park near Berkeley, CA.

Rhizocarpon-geographicum_20 by Amadej Trnkoczy

Rhizocarpon geographicum (L.) DC, syn.: Rhizocarpon riparium Räs

Map Lichen, DE.: Lankartenflechte

Slo.: zemljevidni skorjevec

Dat.: July 4. 2016

Lat.: 46.21318 Long.: 13.54701

Code: Bot_983/2016_IMG0758

Habitat: mountain grassland, moderately steep mountain slope, south aspect; on the border of limestone and flysh bedrock; open place, full sun, moist place; exposed to direct rain; elevation 1.400 m (4.600 feet); average precipitations ~ 3.000 mm/year, average temperature 3-5 deg C, pre-alpine phytogeographical region.

Substratum: small inclusions of hard, smooth, siliceous rock in bare, exposed calcareous (limestone or dolomite) bedrock.

Place: Mont Matajur region, next to the trail from village Livek to Mt. Matajur, west of Planina Matajur, Julian Pre-Alps, Posočje, Slovenia EC.

Comment: Rhizocarpon geographicum is beautiful, conspicuous lichen, which is very common in the regions with siliceous, acid ground. But in Slovenia it is rather a rare find because of the lack of such ground. With its bright yellow thallus, black apothecia and black prothallus and characteristically areolate pattern of the thallus, which coarsely resembles a map, it is superficially easy to determine. However the Rhizocarpon geographicum group is extremely polymorphic, still poorly understood species complex. Several taxa have been separated with slightly different chemistry, spore properties and/or habit.

The thallus of Rhizocarpon geographicum grows very slowly, only about 0.1 mm per year (Ref.4). The largest thalli can be much more than thousand years old. This slow hrouth is used in global warming studies. Retreat of glaciers can be measured by measuring thalli diameter along valleys with retreating glaciers.

Thalli up to 10 x 6 cm large.

Ref.:

(1) F.S. Dobson, Lichens, The Richmonds Publishing Ca.LTD (2005), p 386.

(2) V. Wirth, Die Flechten Baden-Württembergs, Teil.2., Ulmer (1995), p 812.

(3) V. Wirth, R. Duell, Farbatlas Flechten und Moose, Ulmer, (2000), p 137.

(4) B. Marbach, C. Kainz, Moose, Farne und Flechten, BLV Naturfürer (2002), p 90.

(5) C.W.Smith, et all, The lichens of Great Britain and Ireland, The British Lichen Society, (2009), p 800.

(6) I.M. Brodo, S.D. Sharnoff, S. Sharnoff, Lichens of North America, Yale Uni. Press (2001), p 635.

Anish Kapoor at Lisson Gallery in Sep 2021 by Koji Moriya

1

www.lissongallery.com/exhibitions/anish-kapoor-f45a2ea5-2...

For his latest exhibition, Anish Kapoor presents a new series of paintings, an element of his practice that has rarely been seen, exploring the intimate and ritualistic nature of his work. Created over the past year, the show provides a poetic view of the artist's recent preoccupations. While painting has always been an integral part of Kapoor’s practice, this radical new body of work is both spiritual and ecstatic, showing Kapoor working in more vivid and urgent form than ever. Alongside this exhibition, a solo show dedicated to Kapoor's paintings will run at Modern Art Oxford from 2 October 2021 - 13 February 2022, and both shows precede Kapoor’s major retrospective at Gallerie dell'Accademia di Venezia, opening April 2022 to coincide with the Venice Biennale.

Through painting, Kapoor delves into the deep inner world of our mind and body, from the physical exploration of the flesh and blood, to investigating psychological concepts as primal and nameless as origin and obliteration. Since the 1980s, Kapoor has been celebrated largely as a sculptor, yet painting, and its rawest composition, colour and form, have been a fundamental element of his practice-. The presentation will feature a selection of new and recent paintings, created between 2019 and 2021, the majority in the artist’s London-based studio during the pandemic. Like the artist’s wider oeuvre, these paintings are rooted in a drive to grasp the unknown, to awaken consciousness and experiment with the phenomenology of space.

Kapoor’s work has been characterized by an intense encounter with colour and matter – manifest either through refined, reflective surfaces such as metal or mirrors, or through the tactile, sensual quality of the blankets of impasto. The magnetism of the colour red is evident in these new paintings, manifesting the elemental force that flows through us all, yet now accompanied by a new palette of telluric greys and yellows, as if witnessing a surge from the depths of the earth. Some works appear volcanic, with an intense, fiery energy, while others are more primitive and abstract, with layers of dense pigment and resin forming a sculpted solidity. Many of the paintings have a visceral outpouring where a canvas within a canvas rotates and evolves in space, seeming to defy gravity, with brushstrokes cascading over the edges like a waterfall. In others we see distorted, polymorphic figures emerging from a deep, radiant void, with a ghostly aura.

Kapoor achieves a coherence of mind and body, of interior and exterior in two of the series of works, illustrating a mythic landscape with a turbulent, ominous atmosphere that differentiates land from sky, body from space. These whirling landscapes evoke the extraordinary, eerie Romanticism of JMW Turner, a worship of nature marked through an expressive, dramatic scene. Similar in disposition are two works where we imagine the moon rising over the peak – a symbolic narrative of a new cycle, of origins and menstruation.

The wall-based paintings recall some of Kapoor’s most ambitious, distinguished works, including Svayambhu (2007), My Red Homeland (2003) and Symphony for a Beloved Sun (2013). In these floor-based works we see a more ritualistic, visceral language, where Kapoor unashamedly delves into depicting the very blood and flesh from which we are all born. Artists from Leonardo di Vinci to Francis Bacon have been fascinated with the innards of the body, be it our anatomy or the surrealist beauty in violence. The work also stands in a powerful tradition of artists exploring the human body’s expression of divine matters, yet through the unique vision of Kapoor’s Eastern and Western influences, and ---– considering the year in which they were created --– taking on new meaning highlighting the fragility of the body and self.

Church by davespixel8143

Helleborus niger L. Christmas Rose, Black Hellebore, DE: Christrose, Gewöhnliche Chrostrose, Schwarze Nieswurz, Gewöhnliche Schneerose Slo.: črni teloh by Amadej Trnkoczy

Dat.: March 21. 2017

Lat.: 46.35736 Long.: 13.70168

Code: Bot_1040/2017_DSC00436

Habitat: Mixed riparian forest, next to river; flat terrain, alluvial, sandy, calcareous ground; in shade, humid air and ground place; elevation 535 m (1.750 feet); average precipitations ~ 3.000 mm/year, average temperature 6-8 deg C, alpine phytogeographical region.

Substratum: soil.

Place: Lower Trenta valley, between villages Soča and Trenta, right bank of river Soča, next to the river, near the bridge to Matevž farm house, Trenta 1, East Julian Alps, Posočje, Slovenia EC.

Comment: Helleborus niger is another plant, which fuels my admiration year after year. Its large, up to 10 cm in diameter, snow-white flowers (when young) with their unusual structure (large white 'petals' are actually sepals!) are very beautifully shaped. But they are not only white! Many other shades from yellow, greenish, vividly pink, wine-red, to purple can be found during their growth. The first flowers already appear in earl winter, sometimes even in late November, if the weather allows and bloom well in April, even in May on cool places with lot of snow during the winter. The plant is a floral element of south and east Alps It is widely exploited in horticulture. Helleborus niger is especially valued in Japan, where Helleborus societies are establish, which organize trips to European places where displays of wild growing plants can be admired.

In west Slovenian in Upper Soča river valley and elsewhere Helleborus niger is too common plant to be truly admired. In February and March there are zillions of plants flowering everywhere, in forests, on grassland and especially along wood edges. On many places they represent the most dominant flowering plant not only during late winter but also in early spring.

How many species genus Helleborus comprise is still an open question. The number varies from 5 to 20, depending on to whom you trust. Many of them are extremely polymorphic and any kind of intermediate forms can be found.

Protected according to: Uredba o zavarovanih prostoživečih rastlinskih vrstah, poglavje A, Uradni list RS, št. 46/2004 (Regulation of protected wild plants, chapter A, Official Gazette of Republic Slovenia, no. 46/2004), (2004). However, protected are only underground parts and seeds (Oo category). Protected also in some other EU states.

Ref.:

(1) D. Aeschimann, K. Lauber, D.M. Moser, J.P. Theurillat, Flora Alpina, Vol. 1., Haupt (2004), p 122.

(2) K. Lauber and G. Wagner, Flora Helvetica, 5. Auflage, Haupt (2012), p 100.

(3) M.A. Fischer, W. Adler, K. Oswald, Exkursionsflora für Österreich, Liechtenstein und Südtirol, LO Landesmuseen, Linz, Austria (2005), p 276.

(4) A. Martinči et all., Mala Flora Slovenije (Flora of Slovenia - Key) (in Slovenian), Tehnična Založba Slovenije (2007), p 127.

(5) P. Skoberne, Zavarovane rastline Slovenije (Protected Plants of Slovenia), Mladinska Kniga (2007) (in Slovenian), p 103.

Jump Screenshot #3 by DoctorButtsMD

A screenshot from the finished version of "Jump", a first-person shooter that I made in C# with the XNA framework. The .rar is available for download at drop.io/shaymus22/asset/jump-install-rar

Ginkgo biloba by Tim Martin

Ginkgo biloba, known as Ginkgo or as the Maidenhair Tree, is the only living species in the division Ginkgophyta, all others being extinct. It is found in fossils dating back 270 million years. Native to China, the tree is widely cultivated and was introduced early to human history. It has various uses in traditional medicine and as a source of food. The genus name Ginkgo is regarded as a misspelling of the Japanese gin kyo, "silver apricot".

Ginkgo biloba has a very distinct appearance characterized by its fan-shaped leaves. In fact, the Japanese sometimes call this species I-cho, "tree with leaves like a duck's foot." It can grow up to 30 meters tall and can live for a millenium. It is also well-known for its unique seeds, which have long been used as a food source in Asia. The smell of a great mass of rotting seeds can also be overpowering. In the horticultural literature, it is variously referred to as "disagreeable," "evil," "offensive," "disgusting," "repulsive," and "abominable," and is often compared to the odor of vomit. It is due to the malodorous chemical compound butyric acid, which is found in the integument of the seed; it is the same compound that gives rancid butter its "distinctive" smell.

Ginkgo biloba is a highly adaptable plant that can grow in almost any temperate or Mediterranean climate. It is also resistant to pollution and pests. These attributes have made the male ginkgos very popular in cities.

The Ginkgoales are a group of gymnosperms that date back to the Permian. The group is thought to be more closely related to conifers than to any other gymnosperms. During the middle Jurassic, the Ginkgoales experienced a great increase in species and reached their maximum diversity during the Cretaceous with several species identifiable in what is now Asia, Europe and North America. During the Paleocene, Ginkgoalean diversity was reduced to a single polymorphic species referred to as Gingko adiantoides. This species is almost indistinguishable from the extant Ginkgo biloba.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginkgo_biloba

www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/seedplants/ginkgoales/ginkgo.html

Anish Kapoor at Lisson Gallery in Sep 2021 by Koji Moriya

1

www.lissongallery.com/exhibitions/anish-kapoor-f45a2ea5-2...

For his latest exhibition, Anish Kapoor presents a new series of paintings, an element of his practice that has rarely been seen, exploring the intimate and ritualistic nature of his work. Created over the past year, the show provides a poetic view of the artist's recent preoccupations. While painting has always been an integral part of Kapoor’s practice, this radical new body of work is both spiritual and ecstatic, showing Kapoor working in more vivid and urgent form than ever. Alongside this exhibition, a solo show dedicated to Kapoor's paintings will run at Modern Art Oxford from 2 October 2021 - 13 February 2022, and both shows precede Kapoor’s major retrospective at Gallerie dell'Accademia di Venezia, opening April 2022 to coincide with the Venice Biennale.

Through painting, Kapoor delves into the deep inner world of our mind and body, from the physical exploration of the flesh and blood, to investigating psychological concepts as primal and nameless as origin and obliteration. Since the 1980s, Kapoor has been celebrated largely as a sculptor, yet painting, and its rawest composition, colour and form, have been a fundamental element of his practice-. The presentation will feature a selection of new and recent paintings, created between 2019 and 2021, the majority in the artist’s London-based studio during the pandemic. Like the artist’s wider oeuvre, these paintings are rooted in a drive to grasp the unknown, to awaken consciousness and experiment with the phenomenology of space.

Kapoor’s work has been characterized by an intense encounter with colour and matter – manifest either through refined, reflective surfaces such as metal or mirrors, or through the tactile, sensual quality of the blankets of impasto. The magnetism of the colour red is evident in these new paintings, manifesting the elemental force that flows through us all, yet now accompanied by a new palette of telluric greys and yellows, as if witnessing a surge from the depths of the earth. Some works appear volcanic, with an intense, fiery energy, while others are more primitive and abstract, with layers of dense pigment and resin forming a sculpted solidity. Many of the paintings have a visceral outpouring where a canvas within a canvas rotates and evolves in space, seeming to defy gravity, with brushstrokes cascading over the edges like a waterfall. In others we see distorted, polymorphic figures emerging from a deep, radiant void, with a ghostly aura.

Kapoor achieves a coherence of mind and body, of interior and exterior in two of the series of works, illustrating a mythic landscape with a turbulent, ominous atmosphere that differentiates land from sky, body from space. These whirling landscapes evoke the extraordinary, eerie Romanticism of JMW Turner, a worship of nature marked through an expressive, dramatic scene. Similar in disposition are two works where we imagine the moon rising over the peak – a symbolic narrative of a new cycle, of origins and menstruation.

The wall-based paintings recall some of Kapoor’s most ambitious, distinguished works, including Svayambhu (2007), My Red Homeland (2003) and Symphony for a Beloved Sun (2013). In these floor-based works we see a more ritualistic, visceral language, where Kapoor unashamedly delves into depicting the very blood and flesh from which we are all born. Artists from Leonardo di Vinci to Francis Bacon have been fascinated with the innards of the body, be it our anatomy or the surrealist beauty in violence. The work also stands in a powerful tradition of artists exploring the human body’s expression of divine matters, yet through the unique vision of Kapoor’s Eastern and Western influences, and ---– considering the year in which they were created --– taking on new meaning highlighting the fragility of the body and self.

by Riccardo Cavarzeran

A common and widespread harvester ant that ranges across southern Europe and NW Africa. In the Middle East and Central Asia there are some forms which have never been taxonomically reviewed (Rigato & Toni, 2011).

Stoyanov et al. (2015) - Messor structor are harvester ants storing seeds in underground granaries. Being major seed consumers in xeric habitats they influence the vegetation by depleting and dispersing seeds (Azcarate, Peco 2003, MacMahon et al. 2000, Schlick-Steiner et al. 2005). According to Seifert (1996), Central European populations of the harvester ant genus Messor are currently considered to constitute a single species Messor structor. It has been reported that M. structor ants live mainly in polygynous colonies and could be members of unicolonial populations (Schlick-Steiner et al. 2005). Messor structor is one of the most widespread steppe species. It is well adapted to different conditions and occurs in all of Europe. In Bulgaria this ant is found all over the country in medium-sized populations and occur in plain desolate terrains, mountainous slopes, outskirts of mixed woodland zones and in open well-drained areas such as abandoned fields, pastures, and overgrown lawns.

This study examined genetic variability among populations of Messor structor from various localities (n=36 nests) in from Southern Bulgaria using isoenzymic analysis. Three of the four enzyme loci used were found to be polymorphic. Observed and expected heterozygosities (Ho and He) ranged from 0.0 to 0.111 and from 0.168 to 0.372, respectively. Nei’s (1972) genetic distance was found to range from 0.001 (between Boliarino and Lubenova mahala) to 0.462 (between Chirpan and Merichleri). The estimated mean F-IS and F-ST values from isozyme data were 0.8738 and 0.1432, respectively. Two of the studied populations were grouped separately in dendrograms as compared to all other populations which formed a large cluster consisting of three sub-clusters.

(source: AntWiki)

Cepaea nemoralis by clanchief

The grove snail or brown-lipped snail (Cepaea nemoralis)

Photo taken by Crichton Castle, Midlothian, Scotland

Easy to confuse with the similar Capaea hortensis - The White-lipped Snail. When the identity of an adult individual is questionable, and it is necessary to distinguish the two species, a dissection can be used in order to examine the anatomy: the structure of the love dart is quite different in the two species, as are the vaginal mucus glands.

wing stretch - torea pango - variable oystercatcher -Haematopus unicolor by Steve Attwood

A species of wader in the Haematopodidae family. It is endemic to New Zealand. The Maori name is torea-pango. They are also known as 'red bills'. "Variable" refers to the frontal plumage, which ranges from pied through mottled to all black. They are polymorphic meaning they have different genetic variants. Blacker birds are more common in the south. All Stewart Island variable oystercatchers are black. The have pink legs, an orange eye ring and red beaks. They are often seen in pairs on the coast all around New Zealand. During breeding, the pair will defend their territory, sometimes aggressively. Once mated pairs rarely divorce. After breeding they may be seen within flocks, or on the edges of flocks, of black and white South Island Pied Oystercatcher (SIPO) which also have vivid orange beaks. After breeding they may even form small flocks of their own. Males are around 678 grams and females slightly larger at around 724 grams. Variables can be identified as they are slightly larger than the SIPO - SIPO are around 550 grams. Occasionally totally black but if they are pied (black and white) they can be easily confused with SIPO. The variable species has less definition between the black and the white area, as well as a mottled band on the leading edges of the underwing. Variables also have a smaller white rump patch which is only a band across the base of the tail rather than a wide wedge shape reaching up to the middle of the back as in the SIPO. When mottled they are sometimes called 'smudgies'. They feed on molluscs, crabs and marine worms. After heavy rain, they sometime go inland in search of earthworms. They can open a shellfish by either hammering a hole in it or getting the bill between the two shells (of a bivalve) and twisting them apart. They breed in North Island, South Island, Stewart Island, and Chatham Islands. They do not breed inland or beside rivers although the SIPO does. They nest on the shore between rocks or on sand dunes by making a scrape out of the sand or shingle, sometimes lined with some seaweed. When in flight they make a high pitched 'kleep kleep' sound. They usually lay 2-3 eggs but they can lay up to 5. The eggs are typically stone coloured with small brown patches all over. Eggs hatch in 25-32 days. Chicks are well camouflaged by their colour and can fly in about 6 weeks. The bird lives up to about 27 years.

Chimera by Maya Eidolon

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Polymorphic construction.

I'm reading a fascinating book .... "The Geneticist Who Played Hoops with My DNA ... And Other Masterminds from the Frontiers of Biotech" by David Ewing Duncan.

The author quotes Harvard biochemist Stuart Schreiber, (p. 13) as saying,

“There’s a high probability that for Homo sapiens, the process of evolution as we currently think about it, as (Darwin’s) natural selection, is for all intents and purposes over. It is going to be replaced by our desire and capability to tinker.”

So …. mankind will continue to cross the road … to get to the other side…

Série com o Falcão-americano ou quiriquiri (Falco sparverius) - Series with the American Kestrel - 08-12-2008 - IMG_20081208_9999_247 by Flávio Cruvinel Brandão

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Mais uma vez, muito obrigado ao Marcelo Cazani (Marcazani) pela identificação deste pássaro.

Once more, thank you very much Marcelo Cazani (Marcazani) for the identification of this bird.

A text, in english, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

See at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Kestrel

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American Kestrel

Conservation status

Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Aves

Order: Falconiformes

Family: Falconidae

Genus: Falco

Species: F. sparverius

Binomial name

Falco sparverius

Linnaeus, 1758

Synonyms

Cerchneis sparverius

Tinnunculus sparverius

The American Kestrel (Falco sparverius) is a small falcon. This bird was (and sometimes still is) colloquially known in North America as the "Sparrow Hawk". This name is misleading because it implies a connection with the Eurasian Sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus, which is unrelated; the latter is an accipiter rather than a falcon. Though both are diurnal raptors, they are only distantly related.

American Kestrels are widely distributed across the Americas. Their breeding range extends from central and western Alaska across northern Canada to Nova Scotia, and south throughout North America, into central Mexico, the Baja, and the Caribbean. They are local breeders in Central America and are widely distributed throughout South America.

Most of the birds breeding in Canada and the northern United States migrate south in the winter, although some males stay as year-round residents. It is a very rare vagrant to western Europe.

The American Kestrel is the smallest falcon in North America—about the size of an American Robin. Like all raptors, the American Kestrel is sexually dimorphic, although there is some overlap within the species. The female ranges in length from 23 to 28 centimeters (9-11 inches) with a wingspan of 53–61 centimeters (21–24 inches) and weighs an average of 120 grams (4.2 ounces). The length of the male varies between 20–25 centimeters (8–10 inches) with a wingspan ranging from 51–56 centimeters (20–22 inches) and weighing an average of 111 grams (3.9 ounces). These subtle differences are often difficult to discern in the field.

The coloration of the feathers, however, greatly varies between the sexes. Males have blue-grey secondary feathers on their wings, while the undersides are white with black barring. The back is rufous in coloration, with barring on the lower half. The belly and flanks are white with black spotting. The tail is also rufous, except for the outer rectrix set, which is white with a black subterminal band.

The back of the female American Kestrel is rufous with dark brown barring. The wings exhibit similar coloration and patterning to the back. The undersides of the females are white with rufous streaking. The tail of the female is noticeably different from the male, being rufous in color with numerous narrow dark brown or black bars. Juveniles exhibit coloration patterns similar to the adults.

In both sexes, the head is white with a bluish-grey top. There are also two narrow, vertical black facial markings on each side of the head; one below the eyes and one on the rear portion of the auriculars. Two black spots (ocelli) can be found on each side of the white or orangish nape. The wings are moderately long, fairly narrow, and taper to a point. While perched, the wingtips are noticeably shorter than the tail tip.

The American Kestrel has three basic vocalizations - the "klee" or "killy", the "whine", and the "chitter." The "klee" or "killy" is usually delivered as a rapid series - "killy, killy, killy, killy" when the kestrel is upset or excited. It is used at the apex of the dive display, during fights with other kestrels, and after unsuccessful hunting attempts.

The "whine" may last as long as one to two minutes and may be single or treble. The more intense the situation, the more likely the "whine" will move toward the treble extreme. "Whines" are given during courtship feeding and copulation. The treble whine is heard from breeding females and fledged hungry young.

The "chitter" is the most frequent vocalization in male - female interactions. Its volume and duration depends upon the stress or excitement of the situation. It is associated with friendly approaches and bodily contact between the sexes during breeding season. Occasionally a "chitter" follows a "whine."

Calling occurs throughout the day. Nestlings at two weeks can produce all three vocalizations. Female kestrels tend to have slightly lower pitched and harsher voices than males.

This bird is apparently not a true kestrel. mtDNA cytochrome b sequence analysis (Groombridge et al. 2002) indicates a Late Miocene split[1] between the ancestors of the American Kestrel, and those of the Common Kestrel and its closest relatives. The color pattern with its large areas of brown is reminiscent of kestrels, but the coloration of the head - notably the black ear patch, which is not found in any of the true kestrels - and the male's extensively gray wings are suggestive of a closer relationship with the hobbies, an informal grouping of falcons of usually average size.

Species such as the Merlin and the Aplomado Falcon are proposed as possible close relatives. Indeed, the Merlin is a highly polymorphic bird and although its grey tail and back are distinctive, certain morphs are the only birds that might conceivably be confused with American Kestrels. Conclusive evidence is lacking, and what can be said at present judging from the fairly noninclusive DNA sequence studies[2] is that the general relationships of the present species seem to lie with a number of rather basal "hobby" lineages, such as the Merlin and Aplomado Falcon mentioned already, or the Red-footed and Amur Falcons - or even the Peregrine Falcon lineage with its large species.

The American Kestrel is not very closely related to any of these groups, although it might be closer to the Aplomado Falcon (and its presumed close relatives, the Bat and Orange-breasted Falcons) than to any other living species (Wink et al. 1998) - an association that is also better supported by biogeography than a close relationship with the exclusively Old World true kestrels. It is nonetheless highly distinct in morphology from any of these and, interestingly, has a syrinx similar to the Peregrine and the hierofalcons[3].

In conclusion, until better evidence is available, it is best considered part of a radiation of falcon lineages that diversified around the North Atlantic at the end of the Miocene. Though several fossils of small falcons arte known from North America at roughly the correct time, the earliest testimony of the American Kestrel lineage is Pleistocene remains of the living species (Brodkorb 1964).

American Kestrels are found in a variety of habitats including parks, suburbs, open fields, forest edges and openings, alpine zones, grasslands, marshes, open areas on mountainsides, prairies, plains, deserts with giant cacti, and freeway and highway corridors.

In addition to requiring open space for hunting, American Kestrels seem to need perches for hunting from, cavities for nesting (either natural or man-made), and a sufficient food supply.

The American Kestrel is the only North American falcon to habitually hover with rapid wing beats, keeping its head motionless while scanning the ground for prey. The kestrel commonly perches along fences and powerlines. It glides with flat wings and wingtips curved upward. It occasionally soars in circles with its tail spread and its wings flat.

This falcon species is not long-lived. The oldest banded wild bird was 11 years and seven months old while a captive lived 17 years. A mortality rate average of 57 percent was found. First year mortality rates have declined since 1945 with a decrease in shooting. Major causes of death include collision with traffic, illegal shooting, and predation by other raptors, including the Red-tailed Hawk, Northern Goshawk, Cooper's Hawk, Peregrine Falcon, Barn Owl, and Great Horned Owl.

In summer, kestrels feed largely on grasshoppers, dragonflies, lizards, mice, and voles. They will also eat other small birds. Wintering birds feed primarily on rodents and birds. The birds characteristically hunt along roadsides from telephone wires, fence posts, trees or other convenient perches when not flying in search of food. When they are flying and looking for food they frequently hover with rapid wingbeats.

Because it feeds on both insects and vertebrates, the American Kestrel maintains fairly high population densities. It has a small breeding home range, from 1.75 square miles (4.5 km²) to 2 square miles (5.2 km²). Territory size has been estimated at 269 acres (1.1 km²) to 321 acres (1.3 km²) with much larger wintering home ranges.

Several hunting techniques are used by the American Kestrel. It will hover over one spot—when prey is sighted the kestrel will partly fold its wings and drop lower once or several times before striking. When the prey disappears the falcon will glide in a semicircle before turning back into the wind to hover again. It will also soar in circles, or figure eights, using the same stooping tactics as when hovering.

The kestrel commonly hunts from elevated perch sites, waiting for prey to move on the ground. The kestrel bobs its head and pumps its tail just before attacking.

Other prey capture techniques include direct pursuit, landing and flushing prey from the ground (especially for grasshoppers)and then taking them in flight, capturing flying insects from an elevated perch, and nest robbing including the burrows of Bank Swallows and the nests of Cliff Swallows. It is also an occasional bat catcher, taking bats from their tree roosts, or striking bats in flight from above or as the bats leave or enter caves. The kestrel will kill and cache food items.

The American Kestrel occasionally robs others of the same species. It has also been known to rob a shrike of its prey. Kestrels sometimes harass other hawks, and even Golden Eagles, in flight.

American Kestrels form pairs in which the bond is strong, tending toward permanence. Returning migrants commonly re-establish territories held the previous year. In one study[citation needed], a pair nested in the same tree for six consecutive years. Nesting occurs from late spring to late summer in North America, with incubation underway by the end of May[4]; in tropical South America the birds breed roughly from June onwards through to September or so[5].

Courtship begins shortly after the male establishes a territory. In early courtship, he may give the "dive display", a series of climbs and dives 33 to 66 feet (10 to 20 m) with 3-5 "klee" notes given near the peak of each climb. He may present the female with food during courtship feeding. He may entice her to the nest site by calling. He may "flutter-glide" toward her with quick and shallow wing beats while carrying food and she may also beg for food by flutter-gliding. The female initiates copulation by bowing with her tail in line with her body or slightly raised.

A cavity nester, American Kestrels will use holes in trees, rock cavities and crevices in cliffs, artificial nest boxes, or small spaces in buildings. The number of suitable breeding cavities limits this species' breeding density. The American Kestrel has adapted well to nest boxes. In one program, nest boxes were fixed to the backs of signs along a freeway thus allowing kestrels to breed in areas formerly devoid of nest sites. Pairs nesting in boxes on poles have much higher nesting success than pairs using boxes on trees. No nest is built inside. In nest boxes sawdust and wood shavings may be a suitable substrate for the eggs. Males and females defend the nest against intruders, with the male maintaining a small core territory and the female defending the nest cavity directly rather the surroundings[5].

Both sexes take turns incubating their eggs, a very rare situation among North American birds of prey where the female usually incubates exclusively. Correspondingly, both sexes develop bare oval patches on each side of their breasts where the warm bare skin can contact the eggs for warming. Eggs hatch 29 to 31 days after being laid.[6] There are from three to seven eggs laid, but four to six are average.[6] The eggs are typically short elliptical in shape, and are white or pinkish-white with an even covering of fine spots and flecks of brown shades, occasionally concentrating as a ring or a cap. They will renest if the first nest fails and have been reported to raise 2 broods per year in some of the southern states.

The young grow very quickly, becoming noisy between day 11 and 14 and assuming adult weight in about 2.5 weeks. The young fledge in 30 to 31 days.[7] [6]Early fledgling behavior varies. Broods typically stay together for a week or two. Some broods remain close to the nest area for a week or two while others travel throughout the parents' home range. Generally, young do not disperse more than 0.6 miles (one km) away from the nest area until two to four weeks old. Young disperse as hunting skills develop. Occasionally groups of older juveniles from various broods join together into flocks.

The American Kestrel can be double-brooded, particularly in the southern United States, in areas of abundant small mammals. Replacement clutches can be laid.

Um texto em português:

Falcão-americano ou quiriquiri (Falco sparverius) é um pequeno falcão (23-27 cm de comprimento e 85-140 g de peso). Tem uma ampla área de distribuição: desde o Alasca e Norte do Canadá até à ponta Sul da América do Sul (Terra do Fogo). Tem asas azul acizentadas. O dorso é avermelhado pontuado de preto. A cauda também é avermelhada possuindo uma larga lista preta. Na face possui 2 listas verticais que começam junto aos olhos e seguem para baixo. É um predador de pequeno tamanho, alimentando-se de insetos e microvertrebrados como roedores e pequenos pássaros; ocasionalmente caça morcegos.

Falcão é o nome genérico dado a várias aves da família Falconidae, mais estritamente aos animais classificados dentro do género Falco. O que diferencia os falcões das demais aves de rapina é o fato de terem evoluído no sentido de uma especialização no voo em velocidade (em oposição ao voo planado das águias e abutres e ao voo acrobático dos gaviões), facilitado pelas asas ponteagudas e finas, favorecendo a caça em espaços abertos – daí o fato dos falcões não serem aves de ambientes florestais, preferindo montanhas e penhascos, pradarias, estepes e desertos. Os falcões podem ser identificados, aliás, pelo fato de não planarem em correntes termais, como outras aves de rapina. O falcão-peregrino, especializado na caça de aves médias e grandes em voo, pode atingir 300 km/h em voo picado e é o animal mais rápido da terra. Diferentemente das águias e gaviões, que matam suas presas com os pés, os falcões utilizam as garras apenas para apreenderem a presa, matando-a depois com o bico por desconjuntamento das vértebras, para o que possuem um rebordo em forma de dente na mandíbula superior.

Na Idade Média, os falcões eram apreciados como animais de caça acessíveis apenas à elite.

Parapoynx maculalis - Polymorphic Pondweed Moth - Hodges#4759 by Lou Prosperi 3rd.

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Visiting my lighting set-up, consisting of a 4 foot black light, and a huge 6 inch mogul base 200 watt incandescent light. These were placed up against a new king size cotton sheet neatly pinned up.

A great get-away for my wife and I from August 5th. to August 7th. Enjoy scenic pictures, and lots of beautiful moths.

The lighting rigs I used this time was a 4 foot black light, and a large 6 inch 200 watt incandescent mogul base light bulb, all near a new white cotton king sized sheet.

Formerly known as Lebanon State Forest, visitors are greeted by the fresh scent of pines. Today's forested acres are a strong contrast to the barren, cleared land that existed in the 1800s. The Lebanon Glass Works was established in 1851 and was successful until 1867, when it shut down after depleting the supply of wood necessary for the furnace to operate.

Today, hikers can follow the sandy trails and roads that crisscross the forest, sometimes passing near the remains of stone or brick structures or where large depressions indicate the location of what was once a bustling town. Pure, iron-rich streams flow through acres of swampy land covered with dense stands of Atlantic white cedar.

Arescus2019-1-4otonga_7752c by Jim McClarin

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Yet another color & pattern morph of the wildly polymorphic Arescus (family Chrysomelidae, subfamily Cassidinae) found where they are most always found, inside the rolled leaf shoot of Heliconia. Otonga Reserve, Las Pampas, Cotopaxi, Ecuador, about 1500 meters elevation.

Série com o Falcão-americano ou quiriquiri (Falco sparverius) - Series with the American Kestrel - 08-12-2008 - IMG_20081208_9999_285 by Flávio Cruvinel Brandão