Tag: plant

Wildlife Garden.

David M2 Comments

The new Cosmic Photo Challenge is How Does Your Garden Grow.

When I was living in a rural part of Cheshire, England I turned a corner of the garden into a wildlife garden. It became a wildflower meadow and somewhere to photograph plants, insects and birds. I didn’t have to drive anywhere and could set up a hide anywhere for as long as I wanted.

A Dandelion seed head (clock) growing in the meadow.

Dandelion seed head.

This male Common Pheasant in hoarfrost one winter morning was a fairly regular visitor at certain times of the year.

Frosted Pheasant

This pair of Soldier Beetles are mating on Ragwort flowers.

Soldier Beetles mating on Ragwort flowers.

This male Eurasian Bullfinch liked the fresh grass seed heads.

Male Eurasian Bullfinch.

One of the plant species growing in the meadow.

Hardheads.

There was Teasels growing along the edge of the meadow to attract European Goldfinches.

Goldfinch feeding on Teasel.

I picked up the windfall apples from under the trees in the vegetable garden and put them in the grass on the meadow for birds such as this Common Starling.

European Starling in winter.

Burdock Hooks.

David M4 Comments

Throwback Thursday travels back to Cheshire in the 1980s.

This is an extreme close up of the hooks on a seed head of Lesser Burdock (Arctium minus). Alternative English names include Little Burdock, Louse-Bur and Common Burdock.

The hooks allow the seed heads to attach themselves to humans and animals for seed dispersal. The hooks gave the inventor of Velcro the idea for the product.

Burdock Hooks.

Borage Close-Ups.

David M24 Comments

The Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #34 is Close-Up.

After giving the challenge some thought I decided to concentrate on a single species, in this case the annual herb Borage. Traditionally a garden plant in Britain, it is now being grown commercially to produce Borage seed oil.

A Borage flower bud.

Borage plant.

A Borage flower.

Borage plant.

A stalk of Borage flower buds and a flower.

Borage plant.

Borage seeds.

Borage plant seeds.

Snow on the remains of a plant.

David M3 Comments

Taken on a walk last week, the title is because I don’t know what they are remains of.

As I was on one of my regular routes I must have walked past the plant lots of times without noticing it. I suspect that it is a combination of the light and the snow on the plant that caught my attention this time.

I was in a retro mood and had gone out with a manual focus telephoto on the camera which meant walking over some snow covered boulders to get the framing I wanted. Sometimes it pays to use a zoom when out for a walk.

Autumn snow on a dead plant.