Natural Landscapes
November 11, 2009
Lower Second Lake
A contribution to two photographic series in one photograph today. The scene is from British Columbia, and is part of the unplanned native plants of British Columbia series. Also, it's part of a now-annual reflection and remembrance series, beginning with last year's November 11 BPotD of Jasper National Park.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 11:00 AM| Comments (8)
November 3, 2009
Abernethy Forest
Lindsay Bourque is again responsible for today's written entry. Lindsay writes:
Thank you to Stephen Buchan@Flickr for supplying today's photograph (original image | Botany Photo of the Day Flickr Pool) and the following summary of the plant community in the image:
"Tall, straight Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) forming an open canopy with birch (Betula sp.). The luxuriant ground flora includes bracken (Pteridium aquilinum), blaeberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) and heather (Calluna vulgaris), not to mention abundant mosses and lichens."
Abernethy Forest is located on the southern fringe of the Spey Valley to the north of the Cairngorms in the eastern highlands of Scotland. It is a remnant of the ancient Caledonian Forest, which constituted the westernmost outpost of the boreal forest in Europe. Believed to have formed at the end of the last ice age, the Caledonian Forest is estimated to have covered 15,000 square kilometers. Today, approximately 1% remains spread throughout a handful of isolated locations.
However, the forest is being extended southwards by both natural regeneration and restorative reforestation, a growing movement in Scotland. During my time as a tree planter in British Columbia, I remember when tree planting in Scotland would become a hot topic in planting camps; many planters set out overseas to reforest the rolling hills of Scotland.
Botany resource link (added by Daniel): Eva Johansson, of West Kootenay Plants, sent along the following link to my attention, and I think it's very worthwhile of sharing: Fritillaria imperialis (aka imperial crown) via Poemas del río Wang.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 3:45 PM| Comments (13)
October 12, 2009
Connors, New Brunswick
It's a holiday Monday in Canada, so a brief entry today.
I found it very difficult to photograph the autumn colours of eastern North America. Leaving aside the challenges of weather (often rainy or misty), it seemed impossible for me to capture the magnitude of the scenery before me. Today's image only presents one small section of a hillside, giving only the barest hint to the diversity of colour and form.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 7:00 AM| Comments (26)
August 26, 2009
Hordeum jubatum
Foxtail or squirreltail barley is featured once again on BPotD, though from a different perspective (previous entries: Hordeum jubatum seed, Rumex crispus and Hordeum jubatum, and close-ups of Hordeum jubatum).
Heavy spring rains in the high desert of south-central Oregon likely contributed to an excellent year for Hordeum jubatum. The saltscrub flats where this species is the dominant vegetation would have been inundated with water, forming ephemeral alkali lakes. By the time I visited the area in early July, most of these lakes had evaporated, leaving behind robust numbers of foxtail barley -- one of the few plants that can tolerate these alkaline desert environments. I suppose it could be called a facultative halophyte -- a species that tolerates (or thrives) in alkaline environments, but can be found growing in other soil environments. The ability of Hordeum jubatum to withstand extreme conditions, though, contributes to it having a widespread distribution in North America and northeast Asia (and, naturalize elsewhere in the world).
There are many other links to peruse from previous entries on this species, so I'll instead make a few miscellaneous natural history comments about Lake County, Oregon, where these photographs were made. Firstly, Lake County was the site of discovery (in 1938) of the world's oldest shoes (at the time). Found in Fort Rock cave, these sagebrush-bark sandals helped push back the date of first-known human inhabitation of western North America by several thousand years to ~9500-10500 years before-present. Subsequent discoveries of other evidence suggest much older dates of human settlement in North America.
Another tidbit is that Lake County and adjacent Harney County contain the only known sites of Oregon sunstone (images). During my return trip to the area planned for next year, I intend to go gem-hunting.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM| Comments (11)
May 14, 2009
Eucheuma cottonii & Eucheuma spinosum
Hello Botany Photo of the Day readers. In Daniel's absence we will attempt to deliver the BPotD at the high level and consistency that has been its hallmark. I am especially grateful to Daniel, as he has taught me much about IT and photography. That said, please bear with me and the crew as we take over the task.
Ingrid Hoff, Horticultural Manager at UBCBG wrote today's entry.
Tourism is the number one industry in Bali, Indonesia. But not so on the tiny Balinese island of Nusa Lembongan. On Nusa Lembongan it's all about seaweed.
The villagers on this small island off the eastern coast of Bali make their living farming two species of seaweed, Eucheuma spinosum and more commonly Eucheuma cottonii. These seaweeds grow on submerged strings that are stretched between bamboo poles in the shallow, warm, nutrient rich waters. These aquatic fields give the ocean surrounding the island a "patchwork quilt" look.
New growth can be gathered every 45 days, so there is almost always a harvest going on. Villagers wade out into the shallows and fill their boats (or sometimes large baskets) with the seaweed. Back on the beach it is laid out on tarps to dry in the sun and eventually shipped around the world to be used as a thickening ingredient (carrageenan) for use in food (ice cream, diet products etc.) and cosmetics (lotions, shampoo, etc.).
Michael Guiry has an informative write-up on carrageenan on his seaweed site.
Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 10:23 AM| Comments (26)
November 11, 2008
Jasper National Park
A reflection, for a day of reflection and remembrance.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 11:00 AM| Comments (13)
October 22, 2008
Jasper National Park
Back from vacation! I'll sneak in one of my vacation photographs. This was taken on October 6 at Horseshoe Lake in Jasper National Park.
I understand Ruth's been busy on BPotD entries in my absence, so we'll be back to daily entries during the week starting tomorrow!
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 10:05 PM| Comments (19)
May 2, 2008
Oak Haven Park
The first photograph in today's entry was taken at 6:16pm, on a Thursday a few weeks ago. It was actually taken out of a bit of impatience. Twice in the twenty minutes or so prior to that, I was asked by people walking along the path what I was taking a photograph of. "Just the scene, but I'm waiting for the sun to come out." Finally, a few minutes later, I took the second image at 6:20pm. I do a lot of waiting, it seems, when taking photographs. Wait for the light. Wait for the stillness between breezes. Wait for the clouds.
Anyway, I thought this would be a decent follow-up to yesterday's BPotD. I've tried taking photographs of Garry oak habitats before, but I wasn't happy with the results. This is better than what I've done previously, but I've still some ways to go.
Despite its location (minutes away from the extremely popular Butchart Gardens), Oak Haven Park is, by my estimation, rarely visited except by those who live nearby. At 10.2 hectares (25 acres), it is the "largest intact Garry oak ecosystem left in Central Saanich". That's not very large. In many ways, its obscurity is a good thing -- if even a twentieth of Butchart Garden's visitors toured here, it'd quickly become a degraded ecosystem (or require all trails to be fenced). On the other hand, places need to be known about if they are ultimately going to be cared-for and protected.
The most common plant in flower in the park a few weeks ago was Erythronium oregonum, meaning I was (once again) too early for the show of flowers in the meadows in a good year (something like the photograph on this page linked above).
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 1:48 PM| Comments (11)
April 7, 2008
Shell Creek Road
To start off, a thank you for all of the comments recently (including the birthday wishes!).
I was away in California for the past two weeks, taking photographs around Lancaster (the poppy reserve), Atascadero (colourful fields of flowers), the Arboretum at UC Santa Cruz, Point Lobos and UC Berkeley Botanic Garden. It had been several months since I had a photography trip, due in most part to the work required to complete the John Davidson web site. Now that that is done, though, I'm expecting to make a number of trips for the remainder of this year.
Today's photograph is from the Shell Creek Road area of California, east of Atascadero along Highway 58. On either side of the creek for a few kilometres were fields of baby blue-eyes, goldfields, California poppies, tidy-tips and fiddlenecks. The areas weren't solid masses of colour as I had hoped, but impressive nonetheless.
I used a couple web sites to determine where I'd be visiting: Carol Leigh's Wildflower Hotsheet and, to a lesser extent, Desert USA Wildflowers (the latter is better if you are planning on visiting the desert areas, which I decided I was too late for). My self-appointed task now is to avoid these sites, though, because of the displays I feel I'm missing out on.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 10:20 AM| Comments (4)
January 22, 2008
Saccharum ravennae
Thank you to Douglas Justice for both the write-up today and the photographs!
On a short vacation to India this time last year, one of our stops was Jim Corbett National Park, a fascinating mixed deciduous and evergreen forest and grassland reserve famous for tigers. The emptiness of the chaurs (rolling grasslands) was a beautiful antidote to the noise and chaos of the crowded towns and cities of northern India.
There were plenty of wild animals to be seen—this is standard fare for visitors to the park—but I admit I was more interested in the flora and stunning landscape. Our guides, Gurvinder Singh and Geeta Bhatnagarof (of Joint Adventures), were somewhat disappointed that we didn't see any tigers, but there was plenty of evidence that the big cats were nearby. We could hear them roaring and purring (mating behaviour, evidently). I was so absorbed in plant watching, I hardly noticed. Let's just say I didn't get out of the vehicle to check out the fresh scratch marks on the bark of a Butea monosperma (flame-of-the-forest).
The first image, shot from the relative safety of our four-wheel drive vehicle, shows how easy it is to not see a tiger. Note that this grass, tentatively identified as Saccharum ravennae, has been burned. The area is routinely and systematically torched in the dry season both to discourage the forest from expanding, and shorten the grasses (some of which will grow to 8m or more), thus maintaining good wildlife-viewing opportunities.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 10:25 AM| Comments (6)
January 16, 2008
Kiger Gorge
Kiger Gorge on Steens Mountain in southeastern Oregon displays a pattern sometimes seen in gorges and valleys in the Great Basin of North America – a mass of vegetation on one side of the valley, little on the other side. In the case of Kiger Gorge, the U-shaped valley runs north-south (this photograph is taken from the Kiger Outlook, looking north). The east-facing green slope should receive roughly the same amount of sun as the dry, brownish west-facing slope, but (I am guessing) the difference of when the sun shines on each slope accounts for the disparity; the slope with the western exposure will receive direct sunshine from mid-morning to early evening (after the air temperature has risen), whereas the east-facing slope starts to fall into shadow during some of the hottest hours of the day in mid-afternoon. I do have to caution that this is only an educated guess; other factors could be at play, such as microclimates caused by air movement or precipitation.
View a topographic map of Kiger Gorge (click on the map on that page for a larger image) or view the terrain map via Google for some insight into this glacier-carved landscape.
This photograph is from the 2007 Intermountain Expedition. Brent Hine will be sharing a presentation on this trip later this month at UBC Botanical Garden in “Explorations in the Great Basin”.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 9:18 AM| Comments (12)
December 14, 2007
Larrea tridentata
During a March drive into Death Valley National Park on what seemed like an exceptionally dark night, I was able to identify this species as being in the surrounding area from the car without even seeing it. The smell of the plant wafted into the car from the vents, and there was no mistaking it: creosote.
I'll share some close-up photographs of creosote bush plant tomorrow, but this habitat shot illustrates what Wikipedia calls “the peculiar regularity in the spacing of individual plants within a stand”, i.e., instead of forming dense stands, there is always spacing between individuals. There aren't any citations currently associated with the Wikipedia article on Larrea tridentata, but the reason for the spacing seems to be the extremely effective water-absorption abilities of mature plants preventing the establishment and development of seedlings.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 9:01 AM| Comments (12)
October 6, 2007
Skagit Valley Provincial Park
I made my annual trek yesterday to view the autumn colours (particularly Acer circinatum) in Manning Provincial Park and the adjacent Skagit Valley Provincial Park. In my opinion, the colours were average or a bit better along the Highway 3 roadside, so not as spectacular as the previous two years. On the hiking trail I went on, though, the colours were non-existent to below par. Admittedly, the trails don't seem to be as good as the highway roadside for colour, but the trails have the distinct advantage of being away from wind-causing, noisy highway traffic.
After a brief bit of disappointment regarding the maples, I mentally switched gears and started to photograph other things, like this scene from the Skagit River trail. There are two or three spots along the first 6km (3.75 miles) of the trail where the floor of the forest is dominated by the moss shown here, Hylocomium splendens for stretches of 50m (160feet) or so. Invariably, these are areas shaded by coniferous trees and therefore with acidic soils, but that combination of factors is present elsewhere along the trail where the moss isn't found in such quantity. So why only in these brief stretches? I don't know. If forced to make a guess, I would suggest two possible reasons (or a combination thereof): marginally increased local humidity or that this is a successional stage in the re-establishment of plants after a rock and mud slump. The latter strikes me as a good possibility; the ground beneath the thick layer of moss was quite rocky and, after the heavy rains of last year, a new rock and mud slump occurred elsewhere along the trail — approximately 50m wide!
From the Bryophyte Flora of North America entry for Hylocomium splendens, we learn that stair-step moss or stepped feathermoss is “one of the most common and widespread mosses of the circumboreal forest and Arctic tundra, which covers huge areas of Alaska, Canada, northern Europe, and Siberia” and also present in northern Africa, Australia and New Zealand. To view more photographs of Hylocomium splendens, visit the Bryophytes of North America photo gallery or the Northern Ontario Plant Database (the latter has a description of the moss and more resource links.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 7:20 AM| Comments (10)
October 4, 2007
Populus trichocarpa
Black cottonwood has previously been featured on BPotD here: Populus trichocarpa. Two resources to add to those listed there: the Silvics of North America treatment of Populus trichocarpa and GRIN's Populus balsamifera subsp. trichocarpa (a synonym; the previous BPotD touches on the naming issue).
This photograph was taken on the shores of Medicine Lake in Canada's Jasper National Park. “Medicine Lake” should actually be in quotes — it's not a true lake, as it only exists for part of the year. The in-flowing Maligne River backs up in this area for several months of the year due to the volume of glacial meltwater, forming the lake-like body. The water slowly drains via a series of sinkholes, travels through a cave system and then emerges 16km / 10miles downstream in Maligne Canyon. You can estimate the summer high-water mark from the band of vegetation-free shoreline.
Entomology / photography resource link: Via the Zooillogix weblog, mantis photographs by photographer Igor Siwanowicz. If you want to see more of Siwanowicz's work (and trust me, you want to), visit his photo.net gallery: Igor Siwanowicz.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 6:54 AM| Comments (5)
September 26, 2007
Banff National Park
Banff National Park is Canada's oldest national park, originally established in 1885 (thirteen years after the establishment of the world's first national park). This photograph illustrates two of the main ecoregions within the park, the nearly vegetation-free alpine and the lower-elevation subalpine.
In comparison with this photograph of a mountain in the park, the tree-line is not as well-defined. The rugged, rocky slope prevents both soil and seedling establishment in many places. It is also safe to say that periodic avalanches curtail the progression of forest cover on the slopes.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 6:12 AM| Comments (6)
August 14, 2007
Vancouver Island and Gulf Islands
The forests of southeastern Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands are dominated by coastal Douglas-fir, Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii. In old-growth forests, it can become one of the tallest trees in the world. However, much of the land here has been logged, so few giants remain: “On the east side of the island there is a long history of timber harvesting. The forested area is principally second or third growth stands comprised of Douglas-fir, with minor amounts of red alder, western red cedar, western hemlock, grand fir, and western white pine. A substantial portion of this area is private forest land. Crown lands are relatively small, and fragmented on the east coast.” (source: South Island Forest District).
The tallest Pseudotsuga menziesii measures nearly 100 meters (~325 ft) in height, and can be found in Coos County, Oregon. If you're familiar with Cathedral Grove in the central region of Vancouver Island, the tallest of the Douglas-firs in that area measure approximately 75m (~250 ft), by way of comparison. I'm not an expert at estimating tree heights, but I think I'm safe to say that most second-growth Douglas-fir in this area measure under 40m (~125 ft). I should note, also, that the annual incremental increase in height declines rapidly in Douglas-fir after individuals reach 10-20 years 50-60 years (see comments below re: correction) of age – growing to 75m in height takes a far longer span of time than doubling the time required for an individual tree to reach 37.5m.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 1:15 AM| Comments (12)
July 20, 2007
Steens Mountain
The flora of Steens Mountain and the surrounding areas (Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Diamond Craters and the Alvord Desert) contains somewhere around a thousand different taxa of plants (a book about the flora covers 871 species; the list from the Washington Native Plant Society contains 1053 species). Considering the ecological diversity, the high number of taxa is not surprising.
The first photograph is taken from the summit, looking southeastward onto the Alvord Desert (from the same spot as yesterday's Cirsium peckii photo). The summit stands over 1700m (5500 feet - or more than a mile) higher than the floor of the Alvord Desert which it dizzyingly overlooks. The western slope, however, is a gentle incline, taking about 25km (16mi) to ascend from the marshy Malheur area to the summit. As you ascend from the west, you pass through a number of vegetation zones: the marsh, sagebrush-grassland, juniper-pine forest, a second zone of sagebrush with poplar groves in moister areas, subalpine meadows and rocky alpine. The second photograph shows an area of transition between the sagebrush-grassland and the juniper-pine forest.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 6:46 AM| Comments (11)
June 14, 2007
Near Vantage, Washington
Across the Columbia River from Vantage, Washington is an interesting roadside area (map) that is best described as a “natural rock garden”. I've centred the map in that link, and the extent of the area is roughly 2500m N-S x 1000m E-W (approx. 1.5mi x 0.5 mi).
Geologically, the area is composed of basaltic outcroppings with (curiously) some small sand dunes interspersed in low-lying areas. Basalt outcroppings are found throughout central and eastern Washington state, but in my experience (and from what I've heard from others), this particular area is special for the extent and diversity of associated vegetation. However, I don't know the area well enough to be able to say with certainty how this occurs (if I had to guess, I'd suggest higher rainfall).
The purple-flowered subshrub in the foreground is Salvia dorrii, or purple sage. Most of the yellow-flowered plants, I believe, are Erigeron linearis, commonly known as yellow desert daisy. I've not identified the other subshrub yet.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 6:45 AM| Comments (2)
April 26, 2007
Painted Hills, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument
The exposed ash fall layers that comprise the most spectacular geological features of the Painted Hills Unit in the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument are nearly devoid of plant life. The reasons as to why start with the clay-rich soils. The initial part of any rainfall (and there is little – less than 41cm (16in) per year) is immediately absorbed by the clay component of the soil — think clay-based kitty litter. Once the top layer of clay is saturated with water, it becomes impermeable to any succeeding rainfall, so the rest of the precipitation quickly drains away; in the process, the draining water flushes away any organic matter that might have built up on the clay (through wind, perhaps), eliminating another factor in the establishment of plant life. Little available water and little organic matter equals a very inhospitable environment.
Where the underlying ash fall layers are not exposed, a number of plants can be found including sagebrush, a myriad of grasses, juniper and shadscale.
The Nature and Science of John Day Fossil Beds National Monument part of National Park Service web site goes into more detail – fascinating reading.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 6:48 AM| Comments (11)
February 25, 2007
Lasthenia fremontii and Downingia insignis
A grateful thank you to Dr. Raphael Mazor, aka raphaelmazor@Flickr for sharing today's images (upon the suggestion of marymactavish@Flickr, another BPotD contributor). If you browse through Raphael's photographs, you'll learn that he was involved with teaching high school students about field biology while a graduate student – an activity profiled in “Close Encounters - Passing Earth Science to the Next Generation”. Original photographs from today are here and here. Thank you, Raphael!
I've attempted to identify both of these to species level, so if there is a misidentification, it's my fault. Both Lasthenia fremontii (Fremont's goldfields) and Downingia insignis (harlequin calicoflower or cupped downingia) are species associated with vernal pools. Vernal pools are temporary wetlands – essentially, shallow springtime ponds that disappear in the summer and autumn.
Vernalpools.org is a stellar resource for learning more about vernal pools and associated organisms in California. The site leads with an 1868 quote from John Muir: “Sauntering in any direction, my feet would brush about a hundred flowers with every step... as if I were wading in liquid gold”. Somewhere between 85% to 90% of California's vernal pools have been lost – statistics like that make the UC Merced campus plan absolutely baffling to me.
More photographs of plants associated with Californian vernal pools can be seen in Plants of Mather Field or the California Native Plant Society's photographs of vernal pools.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 1:00 AM| Comments (2)
February 23, 2007
Petrified Forest National Park
Apologies for the late entry today. I've been waiting for the university's email servers to return to operation before hitting the publish button, since there are nearly eight hundred subscribers of BPotD by email and I wasn't sure what affect the disruption in service might have.
To make up for it, though, I've a few goodies to share with you before getting to today's entry. First of all, visitors to BPotD are now tracked geographically via a Clustrmap. If you've ever wondered about where BPotD is being viewed and read, here's your opportunity to find out. To get continental subsets of the results, click on the continents in the map. I've also added icons linking to the Clustrmap from BPotD's main page and near the bottom of every entry page.
Secondly, I'm now not the only member of the garden staff blogging. Visit the UBC Botanical Garden Blog for a glimpse at what's happening in the garden, courtesy (for now) of Andy Hill. More staff members will be sharing their experiences very soon!
There are no immediately apparent plants in this photograph of Petrified Forest National Park. If you adjust the lens on your mind's eye to look over two hundred million years ago , however, the plain dotted by rocks of petrified wood transforms into an ancient river bed with submerged logs of Araucarioxylon arizonicum (a monkey-puzzle tree / Wollemi pine relative) covered by a thick blanket of sediment. The sediment had a high concentration of silica-rich volcanic ash, which permineralized the fallen logs. The presence of iron and manganese oxides helped to colour the substituting silica, causing the intriguingly-hued quartz one sees today.
To learn more about the park (and its problems with theft), visit the Wikipedia page about it: Petrified Forest National Park. If you've more time to read and learn, either browse through the US National Park Service's site for the park (linked above or specifically visit the page on petrified wood) or read “The Object At Hand”, an article from The Smithsonian Magazine.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 6:21 AM| Comments (5)
February 10, 2007
Populus tremuloides
I must be a fan of Maureen's poplar photographs, since this is the second time one has been featured on BPotD. Maureen, or MontanaRaven@Flickr, shared this image via the BPotD Flickr Group Pool | original). Don't forget to visit Maureen's weblog, raven's nest. Appreciated as always, Maureen
Please (re)visit the previous entry on Populus tremuloides for reading and links. I also highly recommend (re)visiting the resource link in that entry – Marc Adamus has done some stunning work in the past year.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM| Comments (6)
January 29, 2007
Grasslands National Park
Annual visitation numbers of Canadian and US National “Places” I've visited in the last few years (sources: US National Park Service Visitation Reports and Wikipedia):
- Grand Canyon National Park (US): 4 401 522 (2005) – 4 927 km2
- Banff National Park (Canada): 3 927 557 (2004/2005) – 6 641 km2
- Olympic National Park (US): 3 142 774 (2005) – 3 734 km2
- Point Reyes National Seashore (US): 1 988 585 (2005) – 288 km2
- Jasper National Park (Canada): 1 908 000 (2004) – 10 878 km2
- Joshua Tree National Park (US): 1 375 111 (2005) – 3 196 km2
- Death Valley National Park (US): 800 113 (2005) – 13 628 km2
- Saguaro National Park (US): 727 208 (2005) – 370 km2
- Petrified Forest National Park (US): 598 378 (2005) – 885 km2
- Redwood National Park (US): 394 144 (2005) – 455 km2
- Chiricahua National Monument (US): 60 224 (2005) – 49 km2
- Grasslands National Park (Canada): ~ 6000 annually – 907 km2
More people visit Grand Canyon National Park in under 12 hours than Grasslands National Park (previously on BPotD) in a year.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM| Comments (5)
January 9, 2007
Sugarloaf Mountain
From December 16, 2006 to January 14, 2007, Botany Photo of the Day is going to be featuring photo abstracts posted with little or no scientific commentary. If abstracts aren't to your taste, please consider revisiting the site in mid-January. – Daniel
This image was photographed 35 minutes after this one of Lower Nicola Valley. Although the sky and earth were both taken with the same press of the shutter button, they were each processed differently – the digital equivalent to using a graduated neutral density filter while taking the image. The original photograph was also taken in infrared, then converted to black and white.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:10 AM| Comments (4)
December 12, 2006
Joshua Tree National Park
One of four US National Parks (+ 1 US Nat'l Monument) named after plants, the roughly 800 000 acres (324 000 ha) of Joshua Tree National Park is solely located in southern California. Despite its size, that's less than 1 acre for each annual visitor – 1.25 million. Many of the visitors are photographers, and the body of photographs for this place reminds me of a question asked by Guy Tal in his essay: “Does the World Need Another Aspen Image?” (applied to the Joshua trees, of course).
Excellent descriptions of Yucca brevifolia can be found in the Flora of North America and Wikipedia.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 6:16 AM| Comments (5)
November 9, 2006
Death Valley National Park
Although there are no plants in this photograph, Death Valley National Park contains over one thousand species including twenty-three endemics. This represents over half of the plant species native to the Mojave Desert in an area less than a quarter of the full extent of the Mojave. I don't mean to minimize the size of Death Valley NP, though – it is, after all, twice the size of the State of Delaware.
The US National Park Service's site for Death Valley National Park has areas dedicated to the wildflowers and succulents of the park. If you intend to visit Death Valley to see the wildflowers, the park web site is very useful in planning your trip.
Photography / art resource link: For inspiration, the photo gallery of Peter Bussell: Edelweiss Studio. Peter sent me a short note informing me about his work and his site: “my passion is plant and insect macro photography – I shoot all my material in Wakefield, Quebec, so flowers and insects of the Gatineau Region with some artistic elements, too”. I've added Wakefield to the list of places I'd like to visit some day. Thanks, Peter!
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 2:41 AM| Comments (8)
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Botany Photo of the Day and all associated images are licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Botany Photo of the Day is a project of the UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research, located in Vancouver, British Columbia Canada. UBC BGCPR is a department of the Faculty of Land and Food Systems within The University of British Columbia.