Frost. November 20, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature, macro photos.Tags: frost, moss, strawberries, wild, ziggy
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In this case, mid-morning frost on a carpet of moss in a field where I’m currently working. The shade of a stand of fir trees kept the frost in place until coffee break, when I gathered my kit and dashed out into the scrub to snag a couple of photos.
I’m glad I did, even though they were quite rushed.
Moss, supporting a sprawl of wild strawberries:
…and a closer shot of strawberry plants gone red as the freeze comes on:
The full-sized versions of these two photos display the temporal layering of successive ice deposits as what looks here to be chunks of Morton salt. But trust me, it’s good ol’ H2O.
These come our way courtesy of Ziggy, my 50mm Sigma prime lens.
Enjoy.
A Few Moss Shots… November 6, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature, macro photos.Tags: moss
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…Before the snow flies. These are sphagnum mosses growing on a big dead log by the Deerfield river:
Not the best photos, but before long there won’t be much moss ’till Spring, thus these arms’ length efforts.
Hope you like them. 
Chickory. August 1, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature, macro photos.Tags: chickory
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Although I gravitate to the little things in nature, I’m an easy mark for the bigger things which exhibit some less common trait. To my eye, Chickory fits that bill – although it grown chest high in this area, its individual blossoms are spectacular in their simplicity:
There’s a purity of form to this flower, a simplicity of line and clarity of color which captivates me every summer.
Here’s a crop which illustrates what I mean:
There’s something about this flower’s structure which evokes urbanity. Perhaps it’s the echo of flourescent “black light” tubes from my wilder past; perhaps it’s the rectilinearity of its stamens, exploding radially with a conviction seldom found in us “higher forms.” Perhaps it’s its color, pure to the eye but not easily described.
These were abuzz with life, sating the thirst for nectar of all manner of flying things. Honey bees abounded, but they moved on so quickly that I couldn’t get a shot of one. The little flies, however, lingered longer, and my big brother, God bless him, enticed one to sit on his knuckle while I immortalized it on e-celluloid:
This little bugger’s well dusted with chickory pollen. Thank you, little fly, for doing your part to keep the world turning.
A Few Views Of Queen Anne’s Lace. July 28, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature, macro photos.Tags: queen anne's lace
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This flower really is a weed – it’s everywhere in these parts, nondescript, long and leggy and waving in the breeze.
But through its many forms and stages, I always find its umbel interesting, for its constellation of parts:
…and for its structural genius, with an array of solar collectors arranged in fractal iterations:
…for the detail in its center, the blood-red blossom where Queen Anne’s needle missed its stitch:
…for its angelic blush on first opening:
…and for how it Plays Well With Others:”
But that’s another post.
More Damned Moss! July 27, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature, macro photos.Tags: moss, spores, sphagnum, direct transpiration
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If a rainy season is good for anything other than rice and ducks, it’s moss.
Here are some close-ups and crops of some local moss which looks to be livin’ large!
Dig this palette of greens:
This is sphagnum moss in its many forms and colors, sometimes cool and green, other times burning red:
The newest growths of sphagnum moss are nearly gelatinous, not having differentiated a skin layer; every cell directly transpires to the outside world.
It seems to be in this tender stage that moss is most eager to explode, producing phalanxes of spore pods on a mission to Go Forth and Multiply:
The moss-watching has gotten a little easier this year, as I caught it early and have followed it through changes which I hadn’t known happened, but which are starting to make sense.
More to come as this story blossoms.
Canadian Thistle… Oops! July 22, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature, macro photos.Tags: Canada thistle, invasive species, root colonies
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Lately I’ve been taken by this thistle,* which seems to be more prevalent this year than in years past:
Turns out it’s Crisium arvense, Canadian (or Canada) thistle, and its proliferation isn’t likely to be just a matter of me noticing it – entire on-line forums are dedicated to sharing tips on its eradication. Apparently it grows from root “colonies,” thrives on being cut, and produces seeds which are both plentiful and viable within a couple of days of the appearance of flowers.
Still, it’s beautiful, so enjoy it from a distance, ‘k?
Edit:
* This photo was inadvertently inserted, um, by me, instead of the correct one above:
I was trying, as yet unsuccessfully, to identify it (it’s not a thistle) and got them mixed up. Sorry!
Mystery, Um, “Solved!” July 10, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in macro photos.Tags: about moss, and spores, incomprehensible gobbledy-gook
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Remember these?
…and my confusion about whether or not they were reproductive structures, given that I’d been told that moss reproduced sexlessly?
Well, a little Googlin’ revealed that, in fact, they’re sporogonia, little capsules full of spores. Here they are five days later, having a smoke after exploding in reproductive ecstasy:
Turns out sphagnum moss has the happy ability to reproduce both sexually (through spores) and asexually (through bits breaking off to form genetically identical clones.)
If I were moss, I suspect I’d opt for the former.
It’s really quite simple – here, let me quote from the web article where I learned this:
“The haploid spores are derived from diploid sporocytes by meiosis: After replication of the genome, homologous pairs of chromosomes come into close proximity, and crossovers of their chromatids may occur. During metaphase I, the chromosome pairs line up across the equator of the spindle; in anaphase I, they separate and move to opposite ends of the spindle. Subsequently, comparable to mitosis, two new spindles separate the chromatides during metaphase II and anaphase II. Thus, meiosis of one diploid sporocyte yields four haploid spores… “
Um…
‘k.
This will be on the test, kids!
Sating My Moss Obsession. June 18, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature, macro photos.Tags: club moss, moss, sphagnum
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I’ve always loved mosses, which will astonish nobody who’s followed this blog for any length of time. And this past week of wet weather has brought the little buggers to fullness:
This is two distinct types of moss, the smaller “jellied” one being one of the dozens of types of sphagnum mosses found in the Northeast. The taller one is a common club moss topped by what I assume to be sporophytes. Moss, I currently understand, is an ancient plant and is sexless, reproducing through spores, so the red tops are not “flowers” as I had previously thought.
Live and learn, they say.
Random Veggies. June 18, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature, macro photos.Tags: buttercups, shrubs, sorre, water lilies, wildflowers
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Bushes, flowers, you know: The Usual Suspects.
Buttercups in a farm field in Hawley:
I like the tumultuous sky in this one.
An almost invisible flower on a small, woody shrub along route 2:
As is so often the case, I’d stopped to photograph something else (which didn’t work out) when I saw this tiny fleck of color.
Sorry, I’ve no idea what it is.
Here’s a close-up of the flower spikes of sheep sorrel, Rumex acetosella, which en mass lends a shin-high red hue to our unmowed fields:
These little buds are about a millimeter across; I always thought they were tiny seeds, until I got Ziggy, my 50mm Sigma macro lens.
I know, “your check is in the mail,” right?
I wish!
On a darker note, here are some yellow pond lilies, a.k.a. bullhead lilies, specifically Naphir variegata:
I found these in a pond in Plainfield.
And that’s all for now.
In The Flowers. June 18, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature, macro photos.Tags: yellow spider
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Somebody does a pretty good job of matching the drapes:
I took several macros of these rain-soaked flowers before I noticed this little bugger mere inches away; in the end, this was the only shot I saved from the session.
Hope you like it. 
