Essences of Photography: Flora

Showing posts with label Flora. Show all posts

Sunflower

You'd be hard pressed not to like this flower. It just screams happiness! The sight of a sunflower makes me smile without fail. I grew this one in my garden last year and then used the seeds from it to grow more this year. This one grew to about 3 metres tall whereas the ones I planted this year produced "baby" sunflowers which were barely a metre in height.

The flowers in the center of the head are called disk flowers. These mature into fruit (sunflower "seeds"). The disk flowers are arranged spirally. Typically, there are 34 spirals in one direction and 55 in the other; however, in a very large sunflower head there could be 89 in one direction and 144 in the other. This pattern produces the most efficient packing of seeds mathematically possible within the flower head.

Wikipedia

Fern

A rainforest fern taken today whilst we were exploring Mount Lewis, I've always loved ferns, there's something incredibly aesthetically pleasing about them.

Fern

I took this pic this morning in our garden. I've always been a huge fan of ferns, and we have a lot throughout our property.

Torch Ginger

One thing that the tropics does very well is flora. I'm still constantly wowed by some of the flowers that I come across here. This Torch Ginger is one of my favourites. It is a visually stunning flower used often in floral arrangements, but is also used in cooking in countries such as Indonesia, Thailand and Malaya.
I just love it for it's waxy "candle like" appearance.

Poinciana

Isn't this tree magnificent? This is a Poiciana and is actually native to Madagascar, but we are fortunate enough to have lots of them here in Queensland. They flower at the start of the rainy season and is a sure sign summer is on it's way.

Stripy Palm

I just love the detail on the trunk of this palm. I don't know what type of palm it is but I found it on our trip to Cooktown near the cemetery. I will work on trying to identify it, until then it is just to cool not to post!

Frangipani

How beautiful are these flowers? And they smell as good as they look too! The Frangipani is a common sight in Queensland (although native to Central America, Mexico & Brazil) and no more so than in Cooktown. I have never seen so many beautiful a varied Frangipani trees in such a small area, it was quite stunning.

Sunlight

We had a beautiful walk in the rainforest yesterday, the sun was peeking through the dense canopy at intervals along the track we took. These leaves shone like beacons amongst the greens of the rest of the trees.

Buttress Roots

This pic taken in the Daintree Rainforest shows a tree with buttress roots. These roots essentially spread out to form a better support and also better access to nutrients for the tree when it's in shallow soil. This is often the case in rainforests because all the nutrients available sit near the top of the soil.

Rainforest Plant

I love this photo, taken whilst I was on one of my trips into the Rainforest. I've yet to identify it but I'm working on it and will update the post once I find out.

Rhaphidophora

This robust creeping plant is found quite frequently in tropical rainforest. This photo was taken in the Daintree in Far North Queensland.

Hairy Red Pittosporum

These brightly coloured fruits and seeds are found on the Pittosporum rubiginosum plant, also known as The Hairy Red Pittosporum. Endemic to Australia, this photo was taken in the Daintree Rainforest in Far North Queensland.

Water Catcher

This amazing looking plant is a Golden Beehive Ginger (Zingiber spectabile). I believe this plant is native to Malaysia, but grows incredibly well in the tropics where we live. As the name suggests these ginger plants are spectacular. They start out yellow, gradually turn to red and then small "orchid like" flowers grow out of the beehives. Gorgeous!