Botany Photo of the Day

Thanks to Dale Hameister (Dale Hameister@Flickr) from Monterey, California for today's image. See the original image here (submitted via the BPotD Flickr Group Pool). Much appreciated, Dale!

Lindley's blazingstar is native to California and possibly Arizona – the distribution in the USDA PLANTS database for Mentzelia lindleyi includes Arizona, while Jepson's Manual for California Mentzelia account suggests not. I've not been able to find any other reputable sources or references agreeing with the USDA PLANTS database, so this is a bit of a mystery. Perhaps it has naturalized in a few locations of Arizona after escaping from gardens? Its family, the Loasaceae, also has a mysterious distribution. The family is broadly distributed throughout the Americas, but also occurs in South Africa, Namibia, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia!

Who was Lindley? The epithet, lindleyi, commemorates John Lindley, first Professor of Botany at the University of London.

Photography resource link: For inspiration, the photography of David Bostock. David's Artist Statement: “Nature sometimes presents her beauty to us in profound and dramatic ways. More often, we must search the apparent disorder to discover her splendor. I find myself drawn to intimate imagery where nature's beauty presents itself through contemplation of the details. I believe my photographs are most successful when they reveal nature's subtle elegance.”