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

Just to get this out of the way: I apologize in advance for tomorrow's post. I free-associated, and the post kind of ran away and wound up joining the circus. You'll understand when you see it.

Meanwhile, we have some transmitted light photos again. We're not quite out of the crappy-photos period I mentioned back in Part XVIII, but this is approximately the end of it; the photos should be getting better from here on. And some of these aren't that bad, actually.

(The previous transmitted light posts can be found here.)

Nematanthus sp. I tried this one several times before I managed to get a focused, flare-free photo. There is definitely an argument to be made that maybe it wasn't worth all the effort.

Dieffenbachia 'Triumph,' or similar cv. This particular plant has a tendency to produce really white leaves that photograph really yellow (in fact, all my Dieffenbachia photos tend to come out more yellow than I expect them to); I don't know how to explain this. The picture here is more or less accurate color, but I had to tweak it a lot.

Pachypodium lamerei. Even more difficult to get than the Nematanthus post: Pachypodium leaves are extremely narrow. All things considered, I think this is worth being proud of, even if the end result does look quite a lot like the Ficus maclellandii photo in Part XX.

Fatsia japonica. This is from the extremely short-lived plant I bought last summer, that I found mealybugs on. I think Fatsias are really attractive, and kind of want to try again, but they're extremely hard to come by around here. When I have found one, they usually have spider mites. The one time I found one that didn't have detectable spider mites, it had mealybugs. The plant may not be worth the grief.

Aglaonema 'Jubilee.' Very different from how the plant looks under reflected light. This may be my favorite from this batch.

Neoregelia 'Ardie.' Perhaps a little too Mark Rothko. Not that I don't like Mark Rothko.

Aglaonema 'Gold Dust.' I think this one suffered from too strong of a back-light.

Vriesea splendens. The colors remind me of mint chocolate chip ice cream. Though this leaf, if turned into ice cream, would be more like chocolate ice cream with mint chips than the other way around. I bet I'd like it either way.


Dieffenbachia NOID. This is one of two Dieffenbachias I've had for three and a half years; I bought this one thinking it would be a huge variety, like 'Tropic Snow' or 'Tropic Rain,' and then I went to the next store and found a 'Tropic Rain' which was already big, and bought it, and was stuck with this one. It's never been huge, though it started producing much larger leaves after a well-timed hit of fertilizer, and I've come to like it in that way you can't help but like a plant that does well for you over a long period of time, even if it wasn't your first choice.

Anthurium "hookeri," Very new leaf. I think this is not how this plant is supposed to work, and the weird paleness of the leaf indicates something bad (probably inadequate light). But it makes for a pretty striking photo nevertheless.