Nature
grrlscientist | July 1, 2009tags: Dahlia, Gardening, Horticulture, Botany, nature, image of the day
Dahlias.
Photographed on Manhattan's Upper West Side on West 81st street at Central Park West. Actor Alec Baldwin lives in this building, by the way.
Image: GrrlScientist, 29 June 2009 [larger view].
grrlscientist | June 30, 2009tags: Ranunculaceae, Gardening, Horticulture, Botany, nature, image of the day
Purple Clematis, in the Ranunculaceae family (not sure which species this is).
Photographed on Manhattan's Upper West Side on West 81st street at
Central Park West. Passersby were curious as to why I was crawling into
a shrub, until after I emerged and they saw my camera in-hand.
Image: GrrlScientist, 29 June 2009 [larger view].
grrlscientist | June 29, 2009tags: Dahlia, Gardening, Horticulture, Botany, nature, image of the day
Dahlias.
Photographed on Manhattan's Upper West Side on West 81st street at Central Park West.
Image: GrrlScientist, 29 June 2009 [larger view].
On the opposite side of the continent, a friend of mine was murdered by her husband, who then committed suicide. Their teen-aged daughter found their bodies. My friend was very active in the avicultural community, and bred her own flock of rare parrots. If I lived a few thousand miles closer, I would immediately drop everything to care for her flock of parrots as long as…
awild | June 29, 2009I hadn't anticipated that my keen readers would try to guess the *species* of the aforementioned oddity, but since the guessing has headed in that direction I'll post this hint, which shows the much more commonly seen worker caste of our little mystery bug.
Stakes are now at, um, 15 points. Yeah.
grrlscientist | June 28, 2009tags: Hibiscus Tree, Rose of Sharon, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, Garden, Horticulture, Botany, nature, image of the day
Rose of Sharon, also known as the Hibiscus, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis.
Photographed on Columbus Avenue, between West 81st and 82nd streets.
Image: GrrlScientist, 24 June 2009 [larger view].
grrlscientist | June 27, 2009tags: Dahlia, flowers, Garden, Horticulture, Botany, nature, image of the day
A bunch of flowers for you to enjoy. The big yellow blossom
is one of the many thousands of popular Dahlia cultivars.
Photographed on Amsterdam Avenue, near West 83rd street.
Image: GrrlScientist, 24 June 2009 [larger view].
awild | June 27, 2009
This odd little beast crawled out of a leaf litter sample from a mesic oak/pine forest in Florida. Ten points to the first person who picks what it is.
(Not sure what you'll do with ten points. But hey. You're all a creative lot.)
grrlscientist | June 26, 2009tags: Hibiscus Tree, Rose of Sharon, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, Garden, Horticulture, Botany, nature, image of the day
Rose of Sharon, also known as the Hibiscus tree, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis.
Photographed on Columbus Avenue, between West 81st and 82nd streets.
Image: GrrlScientist, 24 June 2009 [larger view].
Hibiscus rosa-sinensis is one of many plant genera that can exhibit polyploidy, a condition where its number of chromosomes is far greater than the two sets that come from each parent. Polyploid offspring can have very different morphologies from either parent, or indeed any ancestor,…
grrlscientist | June 26, 2009tags: Antarctica, environment, nature, streaming video
As an introduction to my special plea to you, my readers, I want to share this astonishing time-lapse video filmed in Antarctica, in and around McMurdo Station and Scott Base [6:17]
Thanks to one of my readers, I learned recently that Quark Expeditions is searching for an Official Blogger to join a voyage to Antarctica. To select this person, they are asking blog writers to enter a competition where the public votes for whom they think would be best for the job. Quite honestly, I think I am the best person in the world to act as the…
grrlscientist | June 25, 2009tags: Cambridge University, Garden, Horticulture, Botany, nature, image of the day
Walkway at Cambridge University Botanic Garden.
Image: Bob O'Hara, 23 April 2009 [larger view].
According to the photographer, the director led them on a tour of the gardens. He said it was laid out by one of Darwin's mentors to show the variation in the plants. Apparently, the trees were paired up to show morphological variation by Henslow, the man who recommended that Darwin accompany the captain on the Beagle's famous voyage. The director of the gardens was really pleased to have worked this out: it…
awild | June 25, 2009
Paratrechina Nylanderia phantasma
Archbold Biological Station, Florida
Here's an ant I almost didn't notice. Paratrechina Nylanderia phantasma is one of the least known insects in North America, active at night and restricted to a particular type of sandy soil in Florida. Workers are only a couple millimeters long and the color of sand. In the field they appear as ghostly little shapes skirting across the ground, scarcely visible even to those looking for them.
Incidentally, N. phantasma was named and described by James Trager, a frequent commentator here at Myrmecos Blog. Perhaps, if…
grrlscientist | June 24, 2009tags: NYC, Upper West Side, Manhattan, flowers, nature, image of the day
Dahlia, Dahlia hybrid.
Photographed on Manhattan's Upper West Side
on Columbus Avenue between West 81st and West 82nd streets.
Image: GrrlScientist, 20 June 2009 [larger view].
grrlscientist | June 23, 2009tags: NYC, Upper West Side, Manhattan, flowers, nature, image of the day
Dahlia, Dahlia hybrid.
Photographed on Manhattan's Upper West Side
on Columbus Avenue between West 81st and West 82nd streets.
Image: GrrlScientist, 20 June 2009 [larger view].
awild | June 23, 2009
An ant, climbing from the pit of a predatory ant lion.
The predator, buried in sand at the base of the pit, hurls a volley of debris towards its target.
Caught in the falling sand, the ant slides back into the pit.
The ant tries to escape, and again the unseen predator hurls a load of sand into her path.
No matter which way the ant turns, the ant lion adjusts its aim, sending up clouds of sand and preventing the ant from gaining traction on the steep walls of the pit.
In the end, the ant lion wins.
A tight crop of the previous image shows the jaws of the ant lion reaching up…
grrlscientist | June 22, 2009tags: NYC, Upper West Side, Manhattan, flowers, nature, image of the day
Dahlia, Dahlia hybrid.
Photographed on Manhattan's Upper West Side
on Columbus Avenue between West 81st and West 82nd streets.
Image: GrrlScientist, 20 June 2009 [larger view].
Unfortunately, with the wind and rain, this flower made another moving target for my camera.
awild | June 22, 2009
Pogonomyrmex badius
The Archbold Biological Station hosts 100+ species of ants. Here are a few of them.
Trachymyrmex septentrionalis
Platythyrea punctata
Strumigenys rogeri
Cyphomyrmex rimosus (queen)
Dorymyrmex bureni
Brachymyrmex obscurior
Paratrechina longicornis
Xenomyrmex floridanus
Cardiocondyla emeryi
Camponotus floridanus
Pachycondyla stigma
Pheidole dentigula
Pyramica eggersi
Pseudomyrmex gracilis, with larva
awild | June 21, 2009
dawn in the scrub
I spent last week in central Florida at the Archbold Biological Station.
Archbold preserves 5,000 hectares of Florida sand scrub, some of the last remaining patches of an ecosystem now largely lost to agriculture and strip malls. The sand scrub is an odd place, a fossil beach from when sea levels were high enough to restrict peninsular Florida to a narrow sandbar. Water runs right through the coarse sand, leaving the scrub looking much like a desert in spite of regular afternoon rains. Cacti thrive. It is a paradoxical place.
The scrub is also remarkable for…
grrlscientist | June 21, 2009tags: NYC, Upper West Side, Manhattan, flowers, nature, image of the day
Pink Dahlia, Dahlia hybrid.
Photographed on Manhattan's Upper West Side
on Columbus Avenue between West 81st and West 82nd streets.
Image: GrrlScientist, 20 June 2009 [larger view].
I am feeling a little better, so I am once more photographing the Big Apple so I can share the images with you. It has been raining a lot in June -- it's been one of the coldest and wettest Junes on record -- so the flowers have lots of raindrops on them, and a lot of insects huddled between their petals, too. Unfortunately, the wind is…
grrlscientist | June 20, 2009tags: NYC, Upper West Side, Manhattan, flowers, nature, image of the day
Red Dahlia, Dahlia hybrid.
Photographed on Manhattan's Upper West Side
on Columbus Avenue between West 81st and West 82nd streets.
Image: GrrlScientist, 20 June 2009 [larger view].
grrlscientist | June 19, 2009tags: NYC, Upper West Side, Manhattan, flowers, nature, image of the day
Egyptian Star Cluster, also known as the Star Flower, Pentas lanceolata.
Photographed on Manhattan's Upper West Side
near the corner of West 81st street and Central Park West.
Image: GrrlScientist, 11 June 2009 [larger view].
Pentas lanceolata, is native to Northeastern Africa mostly to Egypt, hence its name, the Egyptian Star Cluster. This popular and hardy little evergreen perennial does best in full sun with fertile, well-drained soil, and its tubular flowers are especially attractive to hummingbirds and…