Saturday, December 2, 2006
Miniature Boquet

It's really interesting what you find when you look close enough at something ordinary. Clover flowers that you can step on without a second thought take on an amazing beauty under the right light. This one almost looks like a bouquet of some exotic orchids. Coincidentally, what we would consider a "clover flower" is in fact a collection of small flowers. This type of structure is called an "inflorescence" in botanical terms and it is actually more common than you might realize. Once things drop below a certain size our eyes take them as one structure. But the camera helps reveal the truth.

Wednesday, April 5, 2006
The Agapanthus are Coming!

There are a lot of Agapanthus around our home and they are looking like they are about to burst! I took this one today on a walk with The Hound.

My botanist tells me that Agapanthus is derived from the Greek word "agapé" meaning love and "anthos" meaning flower.

And for those really interested in the botany, the group of flowers all radiating from the center with equal length "pedicles" (or individual flower stalks) is called an "umbel." An umbel is a kind of "inflorescence," which is a botanical term referring to a group or cluster of flowers and specifically the structure of that group. Ahhh the Internet, what can\'t it teach you?

Thursday, June 30, 2005
Backlit Agapanthus

Last week, when I was loading my Jeep for a show, I was fortunate enough to catch the sun at a great angle on our little front yard area. On a Saturday my Hound Dog and I would have still been quite unconscious at this time.

This is a variety of Lily native to South Africa. It grows like wild around here, and it's beautiful when they really get going.