These go with my recent post in Favorite Locations.
Here is a close-up of the ice form. This is the same sort of Dirty Icing that Ken Ramos pictured back in January. I gather it's a special form of frost-heaving that forms when the ground is moist and the air is well below freezing. Ice forming on the surface attracts a thin film of water just below it. That film freezes, expands, pushes up the rest, and the whole process just proceeds continuously for as long as conditions allow. Small objects on the surface, like the pebbles shown here, just get carried along for the ride. These extrusions were a couple of inches tall.
Several hours later, and a couple hundred feet lower, these "lousewort" flowers were in fine shape. These are Pedicularis ornithorhyncha, commonly known as the "ducksbill" or "bird's beak" lousewort. They are closely related to Pedicularis groenlandica, the "elephanthead" lousewort, which is found in the same area earlier in the season -- see last picture here
And finally, some heather. I'm not sure exactly which species.
Hope you enjoy!
--Rik
Technical: Canon A710 IS camera, no accessories.
Edited to add, 2024 Jan 19: The ice form is more properly called "needle ice". There is a wikipedia page on it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Needle_ice .
Rouste ice, lousewort flowers, and heather in Conrad Basin
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"Lousewort!" Often I wonder, how such ugly names get placed on such beautiful things. We have flowers similar to your heather, here. But, they are blue instead of pinkish. Wonder could they be the same thing or could they be "Blue Bells." A good rainy day project to find out. Anyway some very nice images there Rik.
Well anything with 'wort' in the name tends to refer to a plant that was used for coping with some kind of infestation or malady.Ken Ramos wrote:"Lousewort!" Often I wonder, how such ugly names get placed on such beautiful things.
A common plant round here in the daisy family is Nipplewort. I'll let you all work out what that was for
Great shots Rik.
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- rjlittlefield
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Thanks for the comments, folks.
NikonUser, I think you nailed the ID on this one.
I was thinking that there were several closely related species, and it was getting so late at night that I didn't take time to look them up.
But I checked this morning both with Flora of the Pacific Northwest and with U.Washington's online WTU Herbarium Image Collection. It turns out that there are only three forms of Phyllodoce in this area (two species and a hybrid), and they are all quite distinct.
So thanks very much -- Phyllodoce empetriformis it is.
--Rik
NikonUser, I think you nailed the ID on this one.
I was thinking that there were several closely related species, and it was getting so late at night that I didn't take time to look them up.
But I checked this morning both with Flora of the Pacific Northwest and with U.Washington's online WTU Herbarium Image Collection. It turns out that there are only three forms of Phyllodoce in this area (two species and a hybrid), and they are all quite distinct.
So thanks very much -- Phyllodoce empetriformis it is.
--Rik
- rjlittlefield
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I had to look this one up. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedicularis, "The common name lousewort, applied to several species, derives from an old belief that these plants, when ingested, were responsible for lice infestations in stock."Ken Ramos wrote:"Lousewort!" Often I wonder, how such ugly names get placed on such beautiful things.
My art history is weak, and I had to look this up too. http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/porter/ . Thanks for the comparison -- he did great work!Those dirty ice shots remind me somewhat of the work of Elliot Porter
--Rik
Indeed he did!rjlittlefield wrote: My art history is weak, and I had to look this up too. http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/porter/ . Thanks for the comparison -- he did great work!
--Rik
Canon 5D and 30D | Canon IXUS 265HS | Cosina 100mm f3.5 macro | EF 75-300 f4.5-5.6 USM III | EF 50 f1.8 II | Slik 88 tripod | Apex Practicioner monocular microscope