Botany Photo of the Day

Well, waking up at 5:30 AM yesterday morning was worth it, photographically-speaking. The early morning light was magnificent, and the garden is both quiet (except for all the birds) and filled with fragrance at 7 AM. It seems like it is the only way to take good botanical photographs during hot summer days and evenings, so I'll be switching my sleep patterns a bit.

The Himalayan blue poppies are just one of the many delights right now, although it seems to me there are fewer blooming this year than in previous years. The genus Meconopsis is found typically in the mountains of southeast Asia. There is a disjunct species in Wales and western England, Meconopsis cambrica. The people at the Meconopsis Group think it is doubtful that this disjunct species will remain a Meconopsis with a taxonomic re-examination. In the Asian Garden, you can find some plants flowering here and there at this time of year, although the largest patch of hybrid Meconopsis is yet to bloom near the fallen grand fir at the far end of the garden.

I promised that I would make a small request of local residents in today's photo of the day entry. Here it is: A Request for Help. In summary: the garden has been without adequate public transit service for three years. The plan for the next five years is to maybe have a shuttle bus that stops at the garden in the summer. It's frustrating and deflating, because (speaking unasked on behalf of the staff and volunteers), we have so much to share and so many people who want to share at the garden, and yet it is planned to have us continue to be difficult to access. We've ten thousand plants with stories to tell at the garden, and while the stories can be told through venues like the Photo of the Day, they still need to be experienced (P.S. The contest from a few days ago is still open).

Anyway, if you're a local (or a tourist who uses public transportion) and can spare a few minutes to add a few comments in support of restoring year-round public transportation to the garden after reading through that piece, I'd be much obliged.

Update (May 28, 2005 11:02 PM PST): Jordi from Spain wrote to me today to request a larger version of this file for desktop wallpaper. So here it is: Meconopsis betonicifolia, at two-thirds the size of the original photograph. The photo is not perfectly in focus, a fact which is revealed more strongly at larger image size - but that's just an excuse for me to try again. If you do want to use it as a desktop wallpaper, and have Photoshop, I recommend making it purposefully more blurry or alternately running a few passes of unsharp masking on it.

Also, I've substantially changed some of the text to add a few more links and more detail on some facts.