Electric mushrooms

Fungi illuminated; this is one great photo essay of mushrooms. While TPP admires these photos he's quite envious about those little LED lights. Several years ago, one of my students had a nifty idea about using tiny lights to illuminate white flowers that appeared to have other adaptations for hawkmoth pollination. A lot of these flowers open in the early evening, and she wondered if flowers that were more conspicuous by illumination if they would get more visits and set more fruit. However the lights proved a technical problem in terms of the wet tropics, an environment that doesn't get along well with electricity. At any rate now the LED revolution gives us another chance to try this field experiment. Maybe this time the flowers will cooperate.

Outstanding trees! Outstanding photography!

Here's a teaser photoessay of some amazing trees, mostly massive old things, truly great trees, "behemoths of biomass and beauty" (the quoted phrase is not TPP's, but he doesn't remember where he saw it). The photographer is Beth Moon and the coffee table book must be amazing.  TPP is tempted even though he swore off coffee table books a few years back. TPP has attempted to photograph a number of pretty amazing trees over the years and it isn't easy especially in the tropics where you can't get a place where you can see the whole things. This was just an ordinary canopy tree on a forest edge. On Cape Cod there's a huge weeping European beech, and the branches touch ground out 20-30 feet from the main trunk where they have rooted and sent upward trunks that are now themselves quite massive. The tree creates a room and it totally impressive, but there's no way at all to photograph it. Ms. Moon is in a league of her own. See how many of the trees you can identify. TPP has no idea about a couple of them; dang it, what a trick to get you to buy the book. HT to old friend Judy for calling this to my attention.

Starry, starry night

Who doesn't know about Vincent's painting?  TPP took one look at this image, and von Gogh's painting came immediately to mind.  And it turns out this image was by a Vincent too, Vincent Brady.  But what is it other than pretty amazing?  Fireflies in time lapse. Wow! It's just too cool for words.  Check the link for many more equally mesmerizing images. And remember it's all about sex, finding and choosing mates, and the gaudier the better, an insect's summer cabaret. Enjoy.