Today we have some greenery from reader James Blilie. His captions are indented, and click on the photos to enlarge them.
Here is another batch of wildlife photo: Plants this time.Douglas firs (Pseudotsuga menziesii), in the lower elevations of the Washington Cascade mountains.
Red pines (or Norway pines) (Pinus resinosa), along the St. Croix River in Minnesota, in William O’Brien State Park. In the background, on islands and sandbars in the river, you see huge numbers of Cottonwoods (Populus deltoides var. occidentalis).
Two photos of Ponderosa pines (Pinus ponderosa), one taken in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado and the other in Klickitat County Washington. Longs Peak is visible in the background of the RMNP shot. The boll of the one in Klickitat county is about 5-feet in diameter (150cm).
Two photos of Coast Redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) from northern California. These trees are one of the most magnificent things I’ve seen in nature. I highly recommend that everyone see them.
Bloodroot (Sanguinaria sp., most likely Sanguinaria canadensis) also from William O’Brien State Park in Minnesota. These bloom on the forest floor in early spring, before the trees fully leaf out.
Evening Primrose (Oenothera caespitosa), taken on the trail to Delicate Arch in Arches National Park, very early in the morning, in April 1996.
Grass widow (Olsynium douglasii), taken on Mount Erie in Anacortes Washington, in March.
A view of the two staffs of life in South Asia: Dal (lentils, Lens culinaris) and Bhat (rice, Oryza sativa). This is the typical arrangement: The Dal is planted on the tops of the small dikes that separate the paddies where the Bhat is planted. Photo taken in July.
Sagebrush (Artemisia spp.), taken in northern Nevada, in early April. The view is typical of the Basin and Range country of the high desert in the western USA. A rain storm is visible over the mountains in the background.
Douglas’ brodiaea or blue lily (Triteleia grandiflora). This photo was taken in midsummer in open forest of Grand fir (Abies grandis), Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), and Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) (and the Western Red Cedars (Thuja plicata) are not far away). This is close to our home in Klickitat County Washington. The forest here is amazingly diverse.
Beautiful! Nicely composed and artfully photographed!
Cheers!
Good stuff! The fish-eye lens is a lot of fun, isn’t it?
Yes, I’ve been using a fish-eye lens since 1990, and doing selfies with it before selfie was a word.
First one: Pentax A 16mm f/2.8 (35mm film) all manual
Next (the one the Ponderosa Pine shot was taken with) was a Rokinon (not great quality, MF)
Current one: Olympus 9mm (2X crop factor) fixed at f/8, three position MF — you hardly need to focus it at f/8!
http://www.berettaconsulting.com/barbarossa/PandJ-Family/1990s/1990/Glacier%20NP%20Aug%201990/Glacier%20NP%20Aug-1990%20Camera%20Fisheye%20View.jpg
Most of the WA shots are taken with rectilinear WAs: A Pentax A 20mm f/2.8 all manual OR with a Sigma 10mm-20mm (f/5.6 I think crop factor 1.5from my Pentax DSLR days — the redwood photo looked up)
Wonderful collection, James. Thanks. If I ever get to California, it’ll be primarily to see the Redwoods.
Truly breathtaking. Plants are wildlife if anything is, after all.
Looking at the binomials, I’m wondering … which species (EDIT: or several) was (were) responsible for the famously prolific Baltic deposits of amber?
Did the conifer forests of Canada and pre-industrialisation North America produce any good amber deposits? My geological (var. lapidary) knowledge doesn’t bring any to mind.
Love the fish-eye redwood photo. Agree that they are a must see…then go enjoy the tide pools around Big Sur.
Did you know sagebrush is Nevada’s state flower? No surprise, since it is ubiquitous across the entire state. Native Americans used it for medicinal purposes and wove it into mats. Good jack rabbit habitat as well. I lived in Reno from age 7 to 19.
These are great. I appreciate seeing the plant kingdom getting a fair shake in the wildlife photos.
Thank you for the nature photos, I always enjoy them. I vacationed in CA years ago and I was awed by the redwoods and even moreso by the sequoias. They are just so darn huge compared to other trees. Even the largest oak tree you’ve ever seen pales compared to a sequoia. Incredible.
A comment on the Rice & lentils photo: Bhat is the term for cooked rice in Nepali (occasionally used in Hindi and Urdu as well). Rice growing in the field is never called Bhat, but rather Dhan (in nepali) or generally Chawal (Hindi-Urdu). So while the dish of Dal-Bhat is certainly the culinary flagship of Nepal, it makes little sense to speak of a dal-bhat field.