Flowers – Page 21 – Michael Stephen Wills Photography

The Space Station and the Waterfall

Potential danger abounds

August 26, 2021August 17, 2021 MichaelStephenWills19 Comments

Capturing photographs and videos on the fly, we visited
Fillmore Glen State Park, Moravia, New York with our granddaughter, Nia. This is Pam and my favorite park for the lack of crowds, variety of wildflowers and dramatic views.

Growing near Cowsheds Waterfall, at the foot of Gorge Trail, was this
strange fruiting wildflower so like a modular space station. It is Baneberry. There are white and red forms. This is white Baneberry (Actaea pachypoda). These terminal round nodes resolve into white balls with black dots, like dolls eyes. The cylindrical connectors (as in space station) turn bright red. Red Baneberry (Actaea rubra) has bright red berries. The flower is a fluffy white mass that gives no hint of the seed form.

All parts of both forms are highly poisonous, the bane of Baneberry. The berries are deadly. Ingestion of as few as two berries by children will cause death from cardiac arrest. Six for an adult.

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Cowsheds Waterfall is littered with enormous limestone blocks, remnants of a shelf. The rock under the limestone, a soft shale, is worn away first by running water forming a room (or Cowshed) under the limestone. Eventually, the limstone falls into the creek. The waterfall is at the end of a blind canyon with a sign at a trail end warning visitors to go no further. Careless visitors to Finger Lakes Gorges are killed, on occasion, by falling rock when they loiter beneath cliffs.

Overview of the site

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Copyright 2021 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved.

Drombeg Stone Circle IV

Seventeen Stones

August 23, 2021July 7, 2023 MichaelStephenWills

Seventeen closely placed stones with an axis pointing south-southwest toward the setting sun, formed by two “entrance” stones, one directly behind Pam, the second to the left. The recumbent in front of her forms the third axis element.

The path features in the past three posts is behind the entrance stones.

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Click Me for the next post in this series

Copyright 2021 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Night Blooming Cereus VIII

reaction to cold temperature

August 21, 2021August 14, 2021 MichaelStephenWills6 Comments

Our “Night Blooming Cereus” is blooming earlier in 2021, blooms opened twice during nights of early August. I put the name in quotes because during the course of writing the first seven posts ( I through VII ) I learned this is NOT a member of the genus Cereus, it is actually an epiphyte of the Epiphyllum genus.

For those familiar with the early history of New York City and Hudson Valley it is easy to see why a common name of the plant is “Dutchman’s Pipe Cactus.”

Emerging flower buds of a Epiphyllum cactus.

Click me for another Night Blooming Cereus Cereus flower post.

References

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

A Summer Flower and Waterfalls

A personal discovery of the namesake of an Ithaca restaurant

August 20, 2021August 8, 2021 MichaelStephenWills16 Comments

Travelling light, using IPhone captures during a 4.6 mile walk on the Gorge and North and South Rim Trails of Taughannock Falls New York State Park, Finger Lakes Region near Ithaca, New York. A few waterfalls and sights along the way. Distance is from the “Health” app on my phone.

A “Rim Trail” follows the edge of the gorge. The “Gorge Trail” is within the gorge, along side the creek and ends at the 200+ foot waterfall.

This was the day Tiger Lilies bloomed along the roads the entire 13 miles. This stand was at the beginning of the South Rim trail.

A few steps farther the trail opens up to the expanse of the gorge above the waterfall, a place to contemplate the age of these rock gazing into the open space. There is no access to the bottom of the gorge here.

On days like this, the experience carries me away, enjoying the moments and forgetting the phone in my pocket. When I come to, it is the bottom of the South Rim trail at the entrance to the Gorge Trail and the hordes walking to the falls on a Sunday afternoon. This waterfall welcomes everyone at the beginning.

The vantages I choose usually exclude the crowds, here is a video of the observation platform beneath the 215 foot Taughannock Falls. Any closer and the camera lens is covered with mist. Feels great on this hot day.

I capture this tree growing along the Gorge Trail for later identification. It has fruits similar to a maple tree. Called samaras and also known as helicopters, maple keys, whirlybirds, and polynoses these must distinguish this tree as a member of the genus Acer though the leaf shape gives me doubts. Here the gorge changes direction almost 90 degrees from, generally, north/south to east/west. There is plenty of sunlight here and the tree has taken root in the talus of the cliff face.

I researched it and discovered the scientific name is Acer pensylvanicum and more commonly known as Moosewood. There is a “famous” restaurant in Ithaca, named Moosewood, so now I know there is indeed a tree growing locally by that name. The restaurant is near the commons of Ithaca and is 100% vegetarian. The last time Pam and I at there we were packed like sardines, like some collective, and we’ve never been back. The food is good and the basis of their fame is a cookbook by the same name.

Backlit lilies found on the climb up the North Rim trail.

Click me for a Tiger Lily photograph from my Fine Art Gallery. Click the “View Larger” link for the image.

Along the trail are interesting and informative sheets about the park and surrounding towns. Trumansburg is the nearest village to the park.

Click me for another Waterfall post.

Copyright 2021 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Drombeg Stone Circle III

Exotic beauty

August 17, 2021July 7, 2023 MichaelStephenWills4 Comments

It is not surprising to find this non-native shrub growing along the path to Drombeg Stone Circle. English gardens featured fuchsia since the late 18th century. The ocean view is part of the charm of this place, the resulting milder climate suits the flourishing of exotic species of plants native to South America, the Caribbean and New Zealand.

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Copyright 2021 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Summer Waterfall Walk

August 16, 2021August 11, 2021 MichaelStephenWills20 Comments

Travelling light, using IPhone captures during a 5.7 mile walk on the Gorge and South Rim Trails of Robert H. Treman New York State Park, Finger Lakes Region near Ithaca, New York. A few waterfalls and sights along the way. Distance is from the “Health” app on my phone.

One of many waterfalls along the Gorge Trail

Birdsong and enchanted place

The power of flowing water (flood stage)

Click me to learn more about the Purple Flowering Raspberry from my Fine Art Photography Gallery

Sweep of Lucifer Falls from the Gorge Trail

That is the South Rim Trail Lucifer Falls Overlook, upper left.

Click me for the next post in this series, “A Summer Flower and Waterfalls.

Copyright 2021 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Drombeg Stone Circle II

Rock Native

August 13, 2021July 7, 2023 MichaelStephenWills4 Comments

This unidentified spring of racemes, fleshy leaves and stalks, grew from the rock wall of the entry path to Drombeg Stone Circle. Here the climate is strongly influenced by the Celtic Sea, milder winters allow exotic plants to flourish.

My appraisal is this is in the Crassulaceae family, possibly the genus Kalanchoe or, more probably Umbilicus, from the fleshy, round, succulent leaves and form of the flowers. Species of Umbilicus are native to Western Europe and known to favor rock walls.

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Copyright 2021 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Yellow Hibiscus IV

anthers and stamens

August 7, 2021August 7, 2021 MichaelStephenWills10 Comments

Evening breezes brought to a halt my series of hibiscus bloom photographs, that bloom faded and shriveled, to be replaced by another. I captured the images of this post on a very quiet summer evening. This bloom was facing up closer to vertical that the previous.

A key identification for all 300 species of hibiscus is the long stamen tube. I have yet to see a local insect interacting with the stamen, always they are in the flower throat. In the tropics, pollination is thought to proceed from large butterflies and birds.

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Here are three macro photographs of this bloom, all from the Canon 100 “macro” lens. I learned by experience to tamp down the diaphragm to the smallest setting, f / 32 for this lens. The different aspects were achieved by moving the lens objective closer to the bloom. This is a “fixed” lens, it has one focal length.

References

Wikipedia – “hibiscus.”

Yellow Hibiscus III

anthers and stamens

August 4, 2021July 31, 2021 MichaelStephenWills7 Comments

Nyctinasty (flower response to light: opening with or closing without light) in hibiscus plants is a mechanism to protect against adverse conditions such as cool temperatures that can be damaging. Through a lack of light stimulus and circadian rhythms the plant is able to trigger the molecular movement of ions to allow for the closing of the flower.

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Here are three macro photographs of this bloom, all from the Canon 100 “macro” lens. I start with the shutter diaphragm open at 4.0 (“F-stop”), a little narrower at 4.5 and a bit more at 9.0. For this lens the maximum opening is at 2.8, the narrowest is 32. As the opening narrows (F-stop increases) the exposure time needed to capture enough light lengthens and the range of the image in focus increases.

References

Wikipedia – “hibiscus.”

Yellow Hibiscus II

flower and buds

August 1, 2021July 30, 2021 MichaelStephenWills2 Comments

This is a perennial, commonly known simply as “hibiscus”, or less widely known as rose mallow. Other names include hardy hibiscus, rose of sharon, and tropical hibiscus.

The hibiscus flower is traditionally worn by Tahitian and Hawaiian girls. If the flower is worn behind the left ear, the woman is married or has a boyfriend. If the flower is worn on the right, she is single or openly available for a relationship.

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Here are the three photographs of this bloom, all from the Canon 100 “macro” lens. Two with “sweat bees” and one without.

References

Wikipedia – “hibiscus.”