[Exceptionally] Pretty pictures: transmitted light -- Part VII

Transmitted light time again. This is maybe not the most impressive batch, but there are still some nice ones.

(See the other transmitted light posts here.)

Ardisia elliptica. The speckles are apparently a normal part of Ardisia leaves. Other pictures, and other species, have shown the same thing.

Pedilanthus tithymaloides. Nearly impossible shot to get (the leaves are thick, making the image muddy, and they're small, too, which means most of the attempts had big flares that washed out what little detail I could get through the leaf anyway), and possibly not really worth it. But oh well.

Ludisia discolor. This one was actually unusually difficult, too: any light source bright enough to highlight the veins properly was so bright that it flared and washed out the rest of the image. Plus the leaves are small, and so you have to have the camera very close to the leaf to prevent flaring, but then it winds up too close to focus. This isn't an especially good shot, but it's the best of, like, several hundred thousand attempts.

Ficus religiosa. My one seedling still survives. I think we only wound up with one survivor at work, too, and the customer who bought it introduced herself as such the other day. Hers is still alive too.

Ficus triangularis. Can't say the same for the triangularis, though. It was in crappy, peaty soil when I bought it, and I should have repotted, but I didn't, so it eventually dried out one too many times and died. We have two at work now that were potted together from 4-inch plants like the one I bought, and they're actually looking pretty awesome right now. I'm not tempted to buy, but I'm impressed with what they can do if you give them decent care. I should get pictures.

Begonia NOID. Subtle, but kind of interesting. It's slightly larger and more focused if opened in a new window.

Tradescantia zebrina. This was, like, the luckiest of all lucky shots ever, I think: somehow I managed to catch the light at exactly the right angle to light up all these . . . what are they? Pores, maybe? Whatever they are, I've tried to duplicate the shot since, and it hasn't worked out. So this one is totally my favorite from this post.

Dracaena reflexa 'Riki.' The venation isn't really anything to get excited about, but I like these colors. Why more people don't have 'Rikis' mystifies me.

Colocasia NOID. Or maybe it's an Alocasia. I haven't figured out how to tell them apart yet.

Calathea ornata. (new leaf) The old leaves are too dark to see through very well; this was the only way I could get a clear image that included the pink lines.