Communal flowers, trees, plants and fungi thread

[art frames]

This thread is to run alongside the previous communal natural history threads which have been running now for several months on birds and insect life. It comes out of a request on those threads to include other areas of nature.

The aim is for anyone to join in and post their pictures of flowers, trees, plants and fungi for general enjoyment and discussion. So please join in, share images, poems, or add your comment and share your thoughts in a communal, supportive place.

You don't have to be a committed flower photographer - everybody is welcome to contribute if they have a photograph which they are proud of (or disappointed with and would like some advice). It will be fun to learn about plants from around the world, botanical collections or from your garden.

So have a root about on your hard drive and show us what you've got.



To start us off I love this time of year for the wonderful blossom, bluebells and catkins


Blossom by Peter Willmott, on Flickr


Blossom and Bluebells by Peter Willmott, on Flickr

[Ross the fiddler]

A close look at a Kenilworth Ivy flower (Cymbalaria muralis, with common names ivy-leaved toadflax,[2] Kenilworth ivy,[3] coliseum ivy,[3] Oxford ivy,[3] mother of thousands,[3] pennywort,[3] wandering sailor,[3] is a flowering plant native to Mediterranean Europe and widely naturalised elsewhere.).



Focus Stacked in camera, E-M1 & 60mm macro lens.

[art frames]

Hi Ross, had to look it up as I recognised the flower but not the name. I read it has several names including Toadflax which is more familiar to me.

With my EM5 mk2 I don't get the in camera focus stack. I would use it all the time! It does seem to work well.

Thanks for joining in.

[Harold Gough]

Originally Posted by art frames

Hi Ross, had to look it up as I recognised the flower but not the name. I read it has several names including Toadflax which is more familiar to me.

If you see caterpillars which look similar to those of the Large White butterfly, take a closer look:

http://e-group.uk.net/forum/showthread.php?t=39511

Harold

[Harold Gough]

Abutilon vitifolia 'Flowering Maple'.

This is one of the mallow family, together with Hollyhocks. It makes a tallish (2-3m) spindly shrub, which whips around a lot in the wind. It was a windy day and I was standing on a stool to get this flower to fill and effective 210mm frame. I had to wait for calmer moments.

My regular software is out of action but I am happy to post this version, uncropped.

EM-1, Aperture priority, f11?, 1/500, ISO 500, hand-held.

Harold

[David M]

Foxtail Barley detail, Saskatchewan, Canada.

[art frames]

Originally Posted by David M

Foxtail Barley detail, Saskatchewan, Canada.

David

Very beautiful. Looks like it might come alive with 3D specs.

I will start a mammals and others thread shortly. I am thinking up an all inclusive title (ensuring we get everything covered).

In the meantime keep them coming.

[David M]

Originally Posted by art frames

David

Very beautiful. Looks like it might come alive with 3D specs.

I will start a mammals and others thread shortly. I am thinking up an all inclusive title (ensuring we get everything covered).

In the meantime keep them coming.

I was thinking Communal flora and Communal fauna.

[Harold Gough]

Originally Posted by David M

I was thinking Communal flora and Communal fauna.

It depends whether insects are to remain separate, as they as fauna. And where would molluscs go?

I suppose flora would include mushrooms and moulds but some guidance might be required for for the uninitiated.

Harold

[David M]

Originally Posted by Harold Gough

It depends whether insects are to remain separate, as they as fauna. And where would molluscs go?

I suppose flora would include mushrooms and moulds but some guidance might be required for for the uninitiated.

Harold

I realised there could be some confusion and overlap but was trying to come up with something short. Communal mammals, reptiles, amphibians and so on gets a bit of a mouthful.

[Ross the fiddler]

Originally Posted by David M

I realised there could be some confusion and overlap but was trying to come up with something short. Communal mammals, reptiles, amphibians and so on gets a bit of a mouthful.

We could make it even more interesting. Invertebrates & Vertebrates.

Vertebrates include the jawless fish and the jawed vertebrates, which include the cartilaginous fish (sharks and rays) and the bony fish. A bony fish clade known as the lobe-finned fishes is included with tetrapods, which are further divided into amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds. Extant vertebrates range in size from the frog species Paedophryne amauensis, at as little as 7.7 mm (0.30 in), to the blue whale, at up to 33 m (108 ft). Vertebrates make up about 4% of all described animal species; the rest are invertebrates, which lack vertebral columns.

[Harold Gough]

New Broom, Old Lenses

Here are the first of the broom shrub flowers of the year. I used the Kiron 150mm at f16 (Apterure Priority+twin TTL flash) for the first image and the stereo and the Leitz Weztlar Elmarit 60mm macro for the last one.

I like the way the group of flowers splayed outwards.

EM-1, ISO 800, 1/200 and 1/60

The stereo is cross-eye.

Harold

[art frames]

Originally Posted by Harold Gough

New Broom, Old Lenses

Here are the first of the broom shrub flowers of the year.

Harold

Harold, Spectacular flowers. Tend not to be able to grow it in our garden. But a very nice specimen.

[Harold Gough]

Originally Posted by art frames

Harold, Spectacular flowers. Tend not to be able to grow it in our garden. But a very nice specimen.

Thanks, Peter.

This one has hung onto life, helped by permanent support to its leaning stem from string, attached to a nearby fruit tree.

Harold

[jdal]

In contrast to some of the flower portraits on here, this one isn't relly very showy. In fact its a bit scruffy. It's Lathraea squamaria (Toothwort) parasiting on the roots of an old hazel hedge. It's a bit hard to spot by chance, because it's only above ground for a week or so in a year, it has no green leaves, but it does have some adapted leaves underground that help it get it's flower spike aloft.

Toothwort by John Dalrymple, on Flickr

It's a lot more interesting close up though:
Toothwort by John Dalrymple, on Flickr