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Looking down the stem of a small sipping glass. Taken with a Canon 60mm USM Macro lens. Type L for a better view.
Our Daily Challenge - Fill the Frame - 2/17/12
Flower stems and leaf stems, that all stemmed from the garden, all sitting in a long stemmed wine glass.
A couple of white lights from
below.
bedankt voor uw bezoek , commentaar of favoriet maken .
thanks for all your visits, favs or comments .
Check out the thick hairy stem... and the hairy spiny leaves!
Victoria amazonica is the world's largest water lily. Native to tropical South America, Victoria amazonica was first discovered in Bolivia in 1801. In South America it grows in the backwaters of rivers in the Amazon basin, the Guianas and the Pantanal.
The enormous circular leaves grow to over 8 feet across, have upturned rims and are anchored by long stalks arising from underground stems buried in the mud of the river bottom. Leaves appear as spiny heads then expand up to half a square meter per day. The upper surface has a quilted appearance with a waxy layer that repels water. The purplish red undersurface has a network of ribs clad in abundant sharp spines, possibly a defense against fish and manatees.
Air trapped in the spaces between the ribs makes the leaves to float. They are so buoyant that they can easily support the weight of a small child, and a mature leaf can support 99 lb if the load is evenly distributed. In a single season, each plant produces some 40 to 50 leaves, which cover the water surface and exclude light, restricting the growth of most other plants.
The spectacular flowers are relatively short-lived, lasting only about 48 hours. The flower is white the first evening it opens, attracting beetles with a sweet pineapple-like scent and with heat from a thermochemical reaction. At this stage the flower is female and is open to receiving pollen picked up by beetles on other plants. As these beetles bumble around inside the flower, they transfer pollen to the stigmas and fertilization takes place. Then the flower shuts, trapping them inside until the next evening. During that day, the plant changes from female to male: the anthers mature and start producing pollen.
When the flower reopens on the second evening, it has changed to purplish red and no longer emits an attractive scent or heat. Then the beetles, dusted with their pollen, fly off to find another white flower on a different plant (each plant only has one white flower at a time), where the process is repeated. Finally the flower closes up and sinks below the surface, mission accomplished.
See child sittng on giant lily pad!
All rights reserved. Please do not use or reproduce this image on websites, blogs or any other media without my permission.
Before fibre optics was ever thought of nature was there first...Hydrangea stem showing the intricate feeding system that delivers nutrients to the buds. Love nature! ☺
Hero Arts Pop Stems (K5162), adorned with Perfect Pearls and Stickles, sentiment is Inkadinkadoo (Chelsea sentiments)
More on my blog:
fun-stamping.blogspot.com/2013/02/be-our-valentine-pdcc16...
Thanks for looking!
Last night I was privileged to attend a lecture by prominent African American educator, advocate and mathematician Freeman Hrabowski III. His appearance was part of a yearly lecture series sponsored by the wife of the late Senator Mark O. Hatfield.
Hrabowski spoke about his journey as a young child in Alabama listening to Dr. Martin Luther King speak, marching for civil rights and being jailed at 12 years old. How his first name stems from the first "free man" born in his family and his last denoting the last name of his families ancestral Polish slave owner Hrabowski. He is now President of one of the most successful research universities in the country, served as the chair for an Obama advisory committee, and speaks around the world about bringing diversity and equality to STEM (Science/Technology/Engineering/Math) research. He's a rare mix of supreme intelligence and personality to match.
The lecture and the stats he provided made me think about my trip to South Carolina and my first encounter with that dark part of US history. This photo is of the historic slave cabins that still reside at Boone Plantation in Mt. Pleasant. We heard unfiltered stories about the brutal living conditions, inhumane treatment, and how many slaves didn't even survive the arduous trip to the US. A lot has changed since then, but the systemic problems still exist....even in institutions of higher learning.
Hrabowski ended his lecture with this, "“Watch your thoughts become your words. Your words become your actions. Your actions become your habits. Your habits become your character, and your character become your destiny!” Inspiring words from an inspiring person.
Image with my Hasselblad 500cm
Painting my kitchen today, "French Blue", which is probably an inappropriate color for a kitchen, but we like it.
Have a good weekend, and I will check your photos soon!
True fact: this amazing paper lilac stem was made with quilling strips that are just 1mm wide! The narrow width brings new possibilities to quilled designs... coils that look like paper sculpture, plus there is no visible center hole.
Learn all about 1mm strips and a number of other quilling supplies that are equally unique and useful in this week's blog post on All Things Paper: bit.ly/3NfmsnV
The lilac was quilled by Lisa Haas who is the only seller of 1mm strips in the U.S.