Flowers and Plants

Ginkgo biloba Leaf

From the Missouri Botanical Garden:

Ginkgo biloba is a deciduous conifer (a true gymnosperm) that matures to 100′ tall. It is the only surviving member of a group of ancient plants believed to have inhabited the earth up to 150 million years ago. It features distinctive two-lobed, somewhat leathery, fan-shaped, rich green leaves with diverging (almost parallel) veins. Leaves turn bright yellow in fall. Ginkgo trees are commonly called maidenhair trees in reference to the resemblance of their fan-shaped leaves to maidenhair fern leaflets (pinnae). Ginkgos are dioecious (separate male and female trees). Nurseries typically sell only male trees (fruitless), because female trees produce seeds encased in fleshy, fruit-like coverings which, at maturity in autumn, are messy and emit a noxious, foul odor upon falling to the ground and splitting open.

This one is in my mom’s front yard. It’s a tree that dad planted many years ago but which has grown very slowly. It appears to finally be starting to grow taller.

Green Grasses

As you may have noticed, I’ve been going out into the field next to my office a bit lately. Although it’s fairly hot out in the sun, it’s still a nice break from work and worth the heat (for a little while). Two things that I particularly like about being there are the solitude and the colors. Solitude is sort of obvious. Much of the property is hidden from the road by a large mound of soil that was scraped up when the owners began preparing the site for building (building that has not happened, twenty years later). Even when I’m close enough to the road to be seen by passers by, the ragweed is tall enough that if I sit in a clearing I cannot be seen. As for the colors, they are mostly greens and browns. I really love the various shades and this photograph, which is somewhat abstract, captures some of them pretty well.

Catharanthus roseus (Madagascar Periwinkle)

After work today I did some prep work and then we went over to Cathy’s mom’s house where I fixed Panang curry for dinner. Cathy wanted to plant some annuals and we hadn’t seen her in a little while, anyway. While I cooked dinner Cathy worked with her plants. I took a short break while the curry was simmering to take a few pictures, including this one of Madagascar periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus). It is a woody based perennial where it is hardy (USDA Zones 10-11, so not here) but it is grown as an annual in colder regions. The species has rosy-pink to red flowers with mauve throats but cultivars with other color flowers, like this while variety, are what is commonly found in garden centers.

Clivia in Bloom

Each spring we move our clivia (Clivia miniata, also known as Natal or Kaffir lily) into a shady spot in our back yard. It cannot take the summer sun and so it needs to be in a protected spot but it’s also best if it’s in a place that will get rain (if we have any) because we sometimes forget to water it. This is a fairly tollerant plant, though, and can actually take a little neglect. When I got it from a co-worker who was leaving the it had outgrown it’s container. It had also fallen over and out of its pot a few times. I repotted it into a larger pot and it is very happy, blooming most summers in the yard. This picture was taken after a rain storm.

Mushroom

I’m not all that happy with this picture, but it’s what I have for today. We’ve had a pretty good run of insects and flowers, with a few people pictures interspersed among them. This mushroom appeared a couple days ago but today it was open. I took a bunch of pictures from the edge and then tipped it over so I could see the gills on the underside. Wikipedia describes a gill as “a papery hymenophore rib under the cap of some mushroom species.” I like that. I think from now on, I’ll call them papery hymenophore ribs.

Water Droplet on Spruce Twig

Summer is definitely here and we’ve had a few really hot, really muggy days lately. Today was no exception but in the mid afternoon a thunderstorm rolled through and dropped a fair bit of rain in about a half hour. The wind was blowing and it was beautiful. I sat under cover of the back of the house and watched it, getting a little damp, but really enjoying the show. As the rain slowed and water dripped from the trees, I went out with my camera and took a couple dozen pictures, including this one of a drop of water, gathering on the end of a twig. A second after I took this, it fell and a new droplet began to form.