Green tea seepage left red stains on the Karioitahi cliffs.
Polyphenols extracted from green tea leaves have medicinal properties. They remove harmful free radicals that speed up ageing.
A different variety of green tea soaked through the Karioitahi sandstones leaving deep red stains a long time ago.
Antirrhinum deconstructed
It’s easier to see inside when you pull this flower apart. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
Impatiens Walleriana, bright and colourful.
I bought this plant cheap because it wasn’t in top condition. It’s still very pretty.
It’s easy to google a plant and have all the information you want. I prefer to discover any secrets a plant holds by taking a few pics with my macro. This plant has a few surprises.
An Antirrhinum kit set unpacking in the sun.
Nature utilises every colour in the visible spectrum, and beyond with bees.
A few more Gazinia pics.
Three Gazinia flowers all in a row.
Five million years ago a Koromiko migrant put down roots in Aotearoa.
The first Koromiko seeds arrived in Aotearoa by air rather than sea around 5 million years ago. Biosecurity systems relied heavily on isolation back in the day.
Muriwai, 17 million years before Gannets flew in from Australia.
17 million years ago these layered volcanic sandstones were forming on the ocean floor. Gannets hadn’t been invented yet.
Tall tetrapods march through Kumeu mist.
Tall tetrapods march through early morning mist in Kumeu.
Baby wasps and big bees love koromiko.
Koromiko plants cater for all insect sizes.
Yet to open buds come pre-coated with nectar and this suits baby wasps.
Fully grown bees love to feast on the open flowers.
Baby wasps on Koromiko buds.
Baby wasps from a local nest love unopened buds on a Koromiko plant.
Dianthus Delight.
A liberal Greek translation of the genus title “Dianthus” is flower of the gods. I thought it referred to the two prominent twirly bits sticking up.
Euphorbia Milii buds and bud launchers.
Studying plants for a bit of fun is one thing, plants surviving in my care long enough is another.
Osteospermum deepish purple.
Seven days in the life of Osteospermum 3D.
Cleopatra’s needle, an early granite build.
Ancient Romans used to visit even more ancient Egypt on expensive package tours. If they were underwhelmed by the view a graffiti artist in the party left a comment for everyone who followed to marvel at. An early “trip advisor”rating.
Waitete Bay on the Coromandel grew the biggest oysters ever.
Oysters around here grew exceptionally large and were plentiful when waters were warm and pollution free 25 million years ago.
Humans pollute and they don’t tidy up properly.
A gathering of Gazinias.
Pictures are perfect, even if they aren’t perfect pictures. I can study flowers at leisure and marvel at detail.
Unravelling slowly, protective green bracts peel back, revealing purple plum pink pushy ray flowers.
In Search of the Lost Colour.
A tangled neural network in tune with the cosmic, pink appears. A three chord trick, opsin R, G, and B.
Staffa isn’t a million miles from Muriwai.
Joseph Banks set sail to Aotearoa with Captain Cook on the Endeavour in 1767. He was a botanist and collected plants. He visited Staffa and wrote about it, spreading its popularity. Banks was so impressed with the rocks on Staffa he briefly lost interest in Botany.
I initially found rocks more interesting in Aotearoa. I mostly study flowers now. Life can be funny like that.
I’m a bird, I’m a plane, I’m Epidendrum Pacific Rose
If you like orchids. If you like orchids that are neurodiverse. If you like orchids that won’t rot and die. If you like orchids that just keep throwing out flower spikes that deliver for four or five weeks then Epidendrum Pacific Rose is the answer.
Rainy Day Marigold Show
Bright yellows and deep reds.
Where do the bright yellows and deep reds come from? Ask a chemist and the answer is xanthophyll.
Its a thrilling story of carrots and enzymes
If you can’t be bothered with the chemistry enjoy the pictures anyway.
A gif for chemists follows the pictures.