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Post by fumobici on Oct 6, 2009 4:28:39 GMT
Not sure if this is best here or Postcards or in gardening but anyway... Here are a sampling of flora one is likely (truffles notwithstanding) to see wandering the Tuscan countryside. What's surprising to me is how many of these I've grown as cultivated ornamentals.  Violets  Pulmonaria  Pulmonaria & Primrose  Primrose  Quince |
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Post by fumobici on Oct 6, 2009 4:29:14 GMT
 Lilies?  Ranunculi  Violet CU  Orchid   |
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Post by fumobici on Oct 6, 2009 4:29:46 GMT
 Not sure  Lilies  Hellebore  Unknown Spring flower |
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Post by fumobici on Oct 6, 2009 4:30:14 GMT
 Centauria  Centauria  Chicory  Rose hips  Lonicera? |
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Post by fumobici on Oct 6, 2009 4:30:45 GMT
 Clematis  Geranium  Pink  Pink berries  Juniper |
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Post by fumobici on Oct 6, 2009 4:31:47 GMT
 Common Spring flower  Mazza di Tamburo  Acorns  Tartufi  Queen Anne's Lace  Funghi incogniti  Toadflax  Beavertail cacti |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 6, 2009 5:12:33 GMT
Beautiful pictures, fumobici! Seeing the different plants and flowers is another part of travel which a lot of people overlook. I have always been a big fan of all of the little discreet flowers that one can discover in a pasture or the woods. They are rarely 'spectacular,' but when you get down to examine them, they are truly fascinating in their little displays to attract bees and other miniature passersby.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 6, 2009 6:36:32 GMT
This is a total delight, Fumobici! As you say, so many of these are grown as garden flowers, so what a thrill to see them growing wild. I think your "lilies" are Star-of-Bethlehem, or something closely related. My guess on the "Lonicera?" is some kind of Viburnum, which means you're close, as Viburnum is in the honeysuckle family. The one under the geranium is a real mystery. The beavertail cacti are something in the huge Opuntia family. Your pictures are out of this world, but the one that I truly love is the chicory. Thanks so much for this! |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 6, 2009 10:43:37 GMT
What a beautiful thread to wake up to this morning! Positively gorgeous. Difficult to say which one I like the best so I won't labor over that small detail. All beautiful. I'm curious as to how you photographed them with out asking you to divulge any secrets. ( I am a real neophyte with the camera as if it wasn't already obvious). The clarity and detail, so crisp, and the colors so vivid.
The lilies in question,the first I believe Bixa nailed,the second one is a Zephyranthes or 'rain lily',the white one being my favorite.
The mere idea of encountering an orchid like that in the wild,although ,I know they're very common,just sends me.
GRAZIE!
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Post by fumobici on Oct 6, 2009 15:03:49 GMT
Thank you for the plant IDs and the kind words. Living in a rain forest wildflowers are few and far between so being a long time gardener when I am in more open country I seek them out just to look at, attempt to identify or photograph. As for taking the photos, I can't really take credit beyond being in the right place at the right time. Beyond changing the setting to close up mode when appropriate I don't do much beyond pointing and pushing the shutter release.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 6, 2009 21:45:18 GMT
Something to aspire to F. I don't have it straight in my head where you are currently located. Far from home it sounds. And the rainforest has its very own microclimate to grow wonderful flora.  |
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Post by fumobici on Oct 6, 2009 22:23:41 GMT
I'm on the PNW coast in WA so it's temperate borderline rainforest. It's actually a great gardening climate, similar to S England. But it's forested which wildflowers generally despise!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 7, 2009 0:01:23 GMT
In an attempt to not turn this thread into a gardening although, the topic is flora,I hope that you will explore the gardening opportunities afforded you there. And I would venture to say, that I bet there are some terrestrial orchids in your neck of the woods, so to speak. There's a plethora of native orchids in this country that many people are not aware of. Most people associate the genus with tropical climates.
Anyway,hope to see you down in the Garden section.
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Post by imec on Oct 7, 2009 1:04:57 GMT
Many years ago I attended a photography class given by a photographer who was also a botanist. He had personally photographed 24 varieties of wild orchid in Manitoba (the list of orchids in Manitoba maintained by Native Orchid Conservation Inc now numbers 39 varieties). I can assure everyone that Manitoba does not enjoy anything even vaguely resembling a tropical climate ;D. |
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Post by auntieannie on Oct 7, 2009 12:18:22 GMT
I just enjoy the pics and try to gain some knowledge from you lot. Grazie mille e mille!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 8, 2009 2:22:01 GMT
Fantastic pictures. Are you a professional photographer, fumobici?
The colors are really something else.
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Post by hwinpp on Oct 8, 2009 3:32:43 GMT
Over what time period did you take the pics, F?
Nice macro shots. I've had my camera for 3 or 4 years but I've still not figured out how to take them.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 8, 2009 5:18:58 GMT
My stoopid auto-focusing camera often refuses closeups, although I can see the photo I want going in and out of focus before it chooses the wrong setting. I may have to go hunting for the instruction book some day and see how the manual settings work.
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Post by fumobici on Oct 8, 2009 14:12:43 GMT
Fantastic pictures. Are you a professional photographer, fumobici? The colors are really something else. Professional?  God no, but thanks. |
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Post by fumobici on Oct 8, 2009 14:23:41 GMT
Over what time period did you take the pics, F? Nice macro shots. I've had my camera for 3 or 4 years but I've still not figured out how to take them. Thanks. These go back to when I got my first digital camera, perhaps four or five years ago. I've got a macro setting that works nicely but the autofocus can be frustrating there. I'd much prefer a totally manual focus option (haven't found one yet) for those. My workaround is to take photo after photo until one comes out in focus as I want. Not an ideal solution, but having to do that is essentially my only gripe with my camera. I find it actually somewhat difficult to take genuinely bad photos with all the auto stuff, so it's mostly a good thing. |
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Post by fumobici on May 26, 2011 20:28:52 GMT
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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2011 20:40:56 GMT
Just as wonderful, or maybe even more wonderful, than a year and a half ago. It leads me to wonder, though, if it is not possible to take the same pictures in one's own backyard. The moment I travel, I am instantly attuned to anything that I see anywhere -- and often I recognize things that are totally familiar, just seen through different eyes. It is one of the things that struck me the most on my first trip to Vietnam. I recognized an amazing number of the flowers and plants because I had grown up with the same ones in Missisippi (I later read that a large number of the decorative plants of the southeastern US originated in southeast Asia.). Even though I liked them in Mississippi, I would never have considered them worthy of pictures back then -- but I frenetically photographed them throughout Vietnam.  |
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Post by fumobici on May 26, 2011 21:05:29 GMT
There's an element I'm sure of being more acutely aware of one's surroundings when away from one's usual haunts, though as I think I mentioned above where I live is too heavily shaded by forest to produce the kind of profusion of wildflowers one sees in Tuscany. Many of these plants are familiar to me through growing them or their relatives as ornamentals in the garden.
I'd be more than a little interested to see those Vietnamese wildflowers. I don't think of wildflowers when I think of SE Asia.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 26, 2011 22:48:13 GMT
Absolutely beautiful, Fumobici. The ninth one from the bottom sent me into absolute transports.
There are more that I can't name than those that I know. Seeing the comfrey reminded me that so many of the herbs we know in N.America came to us from Europe. As far as Vietnam ........... think how many times you've looked up an ornamental to find that it was originally from Asia. Ditto many wild plants. Over & over you read "escaped from cultivation".
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Post by bjd on May 27, 2011 6:25:18 GMT
Although I can't put names to them, I recognize a lot of these flowers as those growing either wild or cultivated around here.
My neighbour's son is interested in orchids and has organized exhibitions and found many different varieties in the lower altitudes of the Pyrenees mountains. So, indeed, they are not only tropical. I believe there are hundreds of orchid varieties.
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Post by Deleted on May 27, 2011 20:55:42 GMT
I feel that I have seen most of them myself, but I am quite intrigued by the flower with the purple tendrils.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 1, 2011 16:08:43 GMT
The penultimate picture, the lovely hanging white pea-like flowers, look like black locust (Robinia pseudocacia) to me. There are many of those trees in the woods around my home town. It has the loveliest scent -- think Tatiana perfume.
From Wikipedia:
It is native to the southeastern United States, but has been widely planted and naturalized elsewhere in temperate North America, Europe, Southern Africa and Asia and is considered an invasive species in some areas.
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Post by fumobici on Jun 16, 2011 0:00:59 GMT
They call them Acacias there, they are common and are generally considered unwelcome. The bees love them though and they have a nice perfume.
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God no, but thanks.
