Creation Photos Around the World

Slightly grimmer entry from me this time. Family and I were out on a walk recently and came across this animal skull:

https://static.inaturalist.org/photos/83053730/large.jpg?1594127824

Although I’m waiting for the good folk at iNaturalist.org to confirm the ID. I’m 97% certain it is from a Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes).

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The Dwarf pawpaw. Spent 5 years looking for one of these trees and finally found two in the last few months. It’s distinct from the other native pawpaws in USA. One of my favorite species. They believe these trees, and other pawpaws 12,000 years ago were dispersed primarily by the Giant American Ground sloth. Since then it’s mostly spread by larger herbivores like deers. Seems to take roughly a year or half a year to germinate them that requires keeping the seeds moist and cold followed by scarification and planting.

Three other trees that I really want to find and have not yet found are the American Chestnuts, Ozark Chinquapin, and the Gopher Apple.

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I’m still not venturing far from home, at least with my camera, so here’s another flower from the yard. My wife and I don’t know what it is, even though she planted it. It’s 4 or 5 inches across. Anybody know what it is?

I was having trouble getting a good closeup of it because it was so breezy, so I brought it inside – sorry, flower, you’ve been sacrificed to my photographic needs.

Plus, I had a spiffy new macro lens to try out:

After sitting around in a glass of water for a couple of days, the flower added these:


which I assume are a new batch of pollen-bearing dohickeys.

ETA: oh yeah, there’s also a little insect in the last one.

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Beautiful! I think it’s a type of sunflower? I planted some this spring, but it’s not yet blossomed

A moth my daughter found (not sure which kind), and a fantastic cloud/sun complex, which reminds me of Lewis’ “Father Time” in “The Last Battle,” when the giant squeezed the sun like an orange.

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Looks to me like it is from the family Geometridae. Several species hold their wings in that conspicuously Butterfly-like way. Here is a few examples of Geometrid moths from Britain:

Notice the similar shape? Sorry I can’t narrow it down anymore than that.

However, one cool thing to think about is that the moth your daughter found and the those in the UK share a common wing shape and so probably also share a common ancestor too. Pretty neat. :slight_smile:

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Perhaps it’s Gaillardia pulchella?

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Thanks! Yes, it is! The “Seek” app says it’s likely the family “Ennominae,” but I don’t know.Thanks for sharing.

It appears to be a Gloriosa daisy, which is a tetraploid variety of black eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta), which is itself indeed a kind of sunflower. It’s a composite flower, with each petal being an individual ray flower and each of those tiny things springing out of the central bump an individual floret.

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Very cool. I have not seen them with the red yet. But I only have seen them a few times randomly in box stores.

Greater arid land katydid, actually a member of the cricket family. Lots of insects around the house this year.
image

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Swamp Mallow.” Hibiscus grandiflorus” It’s one of Alabama’s largest native hibiscuses and one of the only nocturnal fragrant mallows here. Normally ranges from white, whitish pink, pale pink, to darker pink colors with a dark red center and bright yellow stamens covered with pollen while open.

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Blue heron on the Texas coast
image

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Just some lovely wild grapes I found while biking yesterday. Perfect time too because I was starving, I’ve realized they like growing in morning sun with shaded dappled afternoons. I apparently missed three very young bobcat kittens though. The next people I met told me about them.

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Strange coast. It looks like thatch to me! :grin:

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I’ve never heard of that one before. Surprisingly large flower. Very cool.

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We have wild grapes on our place, and they can be a pain because they want to take over (nothing like trumpet vine, though!). But my older son made some wild grape jelly – it took a lot of grapes since the seed to flesh volume ratio was high (he only did it once :slightly_smiling_face:). The product was nice and tart and was wonderful with cream cheese on a toasted bagel! :yum:

They can definitely take over some areas. That’s why I don’t feel bad about eating them. Foraging some things can be dangerous but many things it’s perfectly safe. The flavors range from sweet to tart depending on the individual.

We have small wild grapes here–the kids like sucking on them (they’re mostly seed, but your photo has some pretty big ones!).
We also have blackcap and regular raspberries wild here --kids like scrounging for them on our walks. Another tasty one is the upright yellow wood sorrel–quite lemony.

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I keep coming back to get another look at that cloud covered sun picture. It makes me think of this famous Hubble image called the Pillars of Creation.

https://images.app.goo.gl/9wbQcMbCuxgejnUR8

Around here I’ve been enjoying the show being put on by the Brazilian plant known as the Walking Iris or Neomarica caerulea. A gift from a gardening friend of mine, it is the strangest iris relative I ever saw. It grows quite tall to about four feet. Another popular name is Apostle Plant, since it must form 12 leaves before it will flower. The flowering stalks look strap like, same as the regular foliage. But embedded in these leaves is a firm stalk. It has sent out buds about a half dozen times now, always followed the next day by flowers that last most of a day. I’m told plantlets will form where each flower has been; though I haven’t seen this phase yet, my friend says this is how he propogated my plant. I suppose this is what accounts for the “Walking Iris” common name.

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