wild flower – Page 17 – Michael Stephen Wills Photography

Overlapping Hepatica and Trillium Blooms

four of a kind

April 13, 2021May 1, 2022 MichaelStephenWills30 Comments

Click here for my Getty flower photography.

Four views of purple trillium, three of a grouping and one portrait. Taken in the same session of a rare set of perfect blooms growing wild.

Taken with a Canon 100 mm “macro” lens, a Kodak dslr body, a Manfrotto tripod and ample time and patience.

Enjoy!

The trillium plant grows from a body of rhizomes, a type of underground stem you can think of as a type of root. There are rhizomes when use to flavor food such as turmeric, though trillium is not one of these.

The single scape grows straight from the ground to form a whorl of three bracts mirrored by the three green (usually) sepals and, again, by the three flower petals for which it is named.

You can clearly see all of this in my photographs.

Copyright 2021 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Personable Wildflowers

With wishes for a Blessed Easter 2021

April 4, 2021April 5, 2021 MichaelStephenWills33 Comments

Late one April afternoon these backlit Hepatica on the gorge wall above the South Rim Trail of Treman Gorge posed for their portraits.

Click me for the first post of this series.

Click me for “Finger Lakes Memories”, a gallery of fine art photography.

Copyright 2019 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Hepatica

Early Spring Beauties

April 1, 2021April 5, 2021 MichaelStephenWills33 Comments

Most every year since 2002 I’ve photographed these personable beauties, the first wildflowers to bloom as early as late February through the snows.

Click me for “Finger Lakes Memories”, a fine art photography gallery.

Copyright 2019 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Hepatica, Fillmore Glen

Hepatica from April 2007

March 26, 2021March 23, 2021 MichaelStephenWills40 Comments

Back in 2007 I used a 100 mm Canon Macro lens on a Kodak slr along with a Sony DSC-F828 variable lens for this mix of macro and habitat captures presented as a gallery so you can flip back and forth among the larger images. Click any image to bring up a larger version.

Click for my “Finger Lakes Memories” Fine Art Photography Gallery.

Copyright 2019 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Wildflowers Late Winter / Early Spring 3

March 18, 2021March 16, 2021 MichaelStephenWills10 Comments

With the thermometer in the 40’s on March 12 these crocus were open, under the same magnolia tree as the buttercups from the 10th. The blooms close during cold snaps much as you see in the first post.

Click photograph for a larger view. To do this from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page.

A tripod held the composition steady and the timer was set to 2 seconds for extra stability. With the leaf body worn away by time, the remaining veining turns the form lacy.

Here is a slideshow today’s and previous wildflowers.

Copyright 2021 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Night Blooming Cereus VII

reaction to cold temperature

November 19, 2020October 28, 2020 MichaelStephenWills2 Comments

For the final post of this series on Cereus blooms, of the four buds two failed to fully open after the weather turned cold in late September/Early October. Here is the failed bloom from the same opening bud featured in the last Cereus posting.

Click me for another Cereus flower post.

References

Wikipedia, “Epiphyllum, “Epiphyllum oxypetalum,”epiphyte.”

Night Blooming Cereus VI

soon to open

November 17, 2020October 26, 2020 MichaelStephenWills16 Comments

Here is a continuation of the previous Cereus posting, the ultimate macros of a bloom on the edge of opening.

Click me for another Cereus flower post.

References

Wikipedia, “Epiphyllum, “Epiphyllum oxypetalum,”epiphyte.”

Night Blooming Cereus V

evening preparation

November 15, 2020October 24, 2020 MichaelStephenWills11 Comments

Almost bursting open, the third of four flower buds of our Night Blooming Cereus caught one October evening just before opening. The black background is repurposed anit-weed ground cover material.

Here is a series of flash photographs at varying apertures and angles. The white rods are emerging anthers, the pollen-containing tips of long stamens seen in my previous postings of the open flowers.

Click me for another Cereus flower post.

References

Wikipedia, “Epiphyllum, “Epiphyllum oxypetalum,”epiphyte.”

Night Blooming Cereus III

Source of popular name?

November 3, 2020October 30, 2020 MichaelStephenWills6 Comments

In an earlier posts the popular name of this plant, “Night Blooming Cereus” was introduced as incorrect, still there must be some truth in the name, I believe it is found in the developing flower stalk and bud.

“Cereus” is from the Greek word for candle. Don’t these developing flower stalks, resemble a candle and the bud a flame?

Click image for a larger version.

Here’s the flower from an earlier bloom this season.

Click me for another flower post, “Another Woody Peony.”

References

Wikipedia, “Epiphyllum, “Epiphyllum oxypetalum,”epiphyte.”

Night Blooming Cereus II

What is this plant?

October 15, 2020October 24, 2020 MichaelStephenWills5 Comments

Epiphyllum oxypetalum, the scientific name for this plant identifies the name “Night Blooming Cereus” as incorrect. The plant is of the genus Epiphyllum, identifying it as an epiphytic organism that grows on the surface of a plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it.

Nor is it in the tribe Cereeae, derived from the Greek and Latin word for “wax”, “torch” or candle. Plants of the Cereeae tribe, including those in the genus Cereus, are cactus with a columnar structure, are are terrestrial, not epiphytic, plants.

Epiphyllum oxypetalum, also know as Dutchman’s pipe cactus, princess of the night, queen of the night, is a species of cactus and one of the most cultivated species in its genus. E. oxypetalum rarely blooms and only at night, and its flowers are reported to wilt before dawn.

The species name oxypetalum is derived from the word, “oxy” meaning sharp, pointed, acute for the characteristic petal shape.

For the bloom photographed here, I can report it was in this condition 7 am, after sunrise, and did not wilt until after noon.

Click me for the next post of this series.

References

Wikipedia, “Epiphyllum, “Epiphyllum oxypetalum,”epiphyte.”