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

I woke up on Monday depressed, and remained that way. This is something that's happened before, though usually it spontaneously dissipates after about six hours without me having to do anything. Occasionally I have to watch Beavis and Butthead Do America to shake it.

Yesterday, it didn't dissipate after six hours. More like twelve (it started to lift around 8-8:30 PM last night). But I've scraped the bottom of the posts barrel¹ to bring you a post anyway, because I love you.

Though it's only a transmitted light post. I don't want to marry you or anything.

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

Spathoglottis NOID.

Zea mays.

Chlorophytum 'Charlotte.'

Aglaonema 'Maria.'

Cordyline fruticosa NOID.

Philodendron pinnatifidum 'Spicy Dog,' dying leaf. Unexpectedly, this is probably my favorite from this set.

Colocasia esculenta. Though this would be a close second place. Colocasia pictures are almost cheating, though, really.

Stromanthe sanguinea 'Triostar.' Turned out badly, which seems like it ought to be impossible with this plant. Not sure what to blame.

Caladium 'Cardinal.' Caladium pictures are cheats too. Also Codiaeum. Any of the "C" plants, really.

Episcia NOID.
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¹ Metaphor, obviously, but I picture it as being your standard staves-and-hoops barrel. Wooden (oak?), about 18 inches (46 cm) in diameter, and filled with white pieces of paper about the size of a receipt, which are the posts.

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

It's hard to follow the plant profiles. Even when it's not a great profile, I've put enough effort into it that I usually don't have time to come up with something else. So: transmitted light photos.

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

Peperomia orba. I don't know why this wound up being such a crappy picture; the leaves are thick, but I've gotten better pictures with thicker leaves before. Unlucky, perhaps.

Taraxacum officinale. This one, on the other hand, is unpleasant because it was taken at the end of fall and the leaf in question was old. There may have been mildew on it too.

Senecio macroglossus.

Fragaria x 'Fort Laramie,' autumn. I was reminded last fall how brilliant the colors can be on strawberry plants. One of those things I knew at one time but forgot about.

Callisia repens.

Colocasia esculenta. If you only concentrate on the darker areas around the main veins, this sort of looks like a few very carefully-arranged green feathers.

Caladium 'Cardinal.'

Weigela florida 'Alexandra.' If I'm reading correctly, the on-line consensus is that this is the same as 'Wine and Roses.' Looks pretty, whatever you call it. A little dark for the yard, maybe.

Stromanthe sanguinea 'Triostar.' These often turn out nicely, but I rarely think that the photo came out looking like the leaf actually looked in person. This one isn't quite right either (though it's still a nice picture).

Quercus sp., autumn. I have a lot of autumn Quercus photos stockpiled; this isn't the best one by a long shot, but it's still my favorite from this set.

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

Okay. Well. The "good" stress is over now, I think/hope, so now we're just waiting to see what's going to happen from it. Meanwhile, I'm hoping to get some plants watered and some blog posts written, so I can make the time to have a small nervous breakdown later. (It's possible that I've had a nervous breakdown already, on Friday and Saturday, but you can never have too many, right?)

Meanwhile, Transmitted Light Week rumbles along with another batch of ten pictures.

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

Lycoris squamigera ("naked ladies"). Plain though the picture is, I kind of like this one. I like the plant, too, though the flowers I saw around town this year didn't look very good, compared to my memory of 2009. Perhaps they don't do as well in wet years?

Juglans sp.? I'm not sure on this one, because there are several trees around here with odd-pinnate leaves, and although I can tell that they aren't all the same, I've never been able to figure out how many there are or how to tell them apart. This was growing in someone's yard, so a walnut tree seems like a reasonable guess, and it's a very new leaf, so there isn't much to go on for an ID anyway. And it's not like it was that great of a photo to begin with, so why are we even talking about this?

Salvia elegans. Now that we've had a hard freeze, all the plants I stuck in the back yard have died, so I'm hoping that I can get a post together about the progression of the blooming. Some of this is just for my own curiosity about when it was actually at its peak, and some of it is that I took pictures every two or three days for weeks and I'll be damned if I'm not going to get something for all that effort.

Plectranthus amboinicus. If you tilt your head to the right, there's a Christmas tree in this picture. Or at least I see one.

Hosta NOID. In case you didn't believe me about these pictures being from the spring, I think this photos should convince you. When's the last time you saw a Hosta leaf that wasn't all ragged from wind and holey from slugs? Was it spring?

Syringa vulgaris. Probably my second-favorite photo from this batch. Also further evidence of spring photo-taking.

Nematanthus cv. These always look like they'd be perfect for transmitted light photos when the sun hits them right, but the leaves are so small that I can never get very good pictures out of them.

Solenostemon scutellarioides 'Henna.' Not a variety I'm terribly familiar with; we didn't carry it when I was working in the garden center. The photo doesn't do much for me.

Colocasia 'Coffee Cups.' This was an unusually difficult picture to get; the camera wouldn't focus on it properly. I like the color I wound up with, but I've seen (and taken) much better photos of Colocasias before.

Calathea makoyana. My favorite from the set, which I suppose is sort of predictable: plants in the maranta family (Marantaceae) are terribly photogenic in general. Less predictably, I've had the plant for six months now, and it's still alive. It's had spider mites once already, and the new leaves aren't very big, but with Calatheas, technically alive is accomplishment enough.

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

In case you hadn't noticed, there's been an enormous jump in the population here at Casa del Subjunctivo (note to self: find a better name for the house) over the last week: I went from 567 on July 19th to 670 on July 27th. A few of these are new purchases, but the majority are divisions and cuttings. There are also some cuttings I'm not confident will work out, so I'm not counting them yet, but if and when they officially take, that might go up over 700. This may help to explain why I'm not doing more long, researchy posts, despite continually promising that I'm going to be. (The other reason is that I have a number of them started at once, some of which are proving to be really difficult.) I'm not lacking at all for subject matter, just for time, which oddly enough was also my excuse three months, one job, and 100 plants ago. I abjectly beg the readers' forgiveness and pledge to do better in the future.

Meanwhile, I will attempt to distract the reader with shiny, brightly-colored things:

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

Clivia miniata 'Aztec Gold.' As happens sometimes, the impressive thing here is not the details of the picture itself, but the fact that the picture exists at all: Clivia leaves are remarkably thick and opaque, and in order to get a transmitted light image out of one, you have to more or less set the leaf directly on top of a fluorescent bulb and photograph it that way. Which is what I did.

Variegated Vanilla planifolia. From a plant at the ex-job. I never decided whether I liked the Vanilla plants or not. They were weird, and kinda cool, but also not incredibly exciting. Also expensive.

Hosta cv. 'Summer Breeze.' This reminds me: I have a bunch of Hostas here at the new house that I could be photographing. I don't know cultivar names for them, but that really doesn't matter that much. I should go do that.

Vriesea splendens. Yes, I've done this plant before, but this is a new picture. I don't know what's not working for me, but I think I'm still trying to get a picture of V. splendens I like.

Yucca guatemalensis, variegated variety. (Still often called Y. elephantipes.) I saw a similar gray-variegated Yucca in the Quad Cities a while back that was interesting. The gray and green stripes were more strongly delineated on that one, so there was greater contrast. It wasn't $55 cool, which was the price they had on it, but it was still pretty cool. I'll post a picture sometime.

Zantedeschia NOID. Best picture of the batch, as far as I'm concerned, though there are flashier, more colorful pictures to follow. Come back to this one when you reach the end and tell me it's not the best.

Neoregelia NOID. This is another plant I've had trouble getting a decent transmitted light shot of. The red shading on the left of the picture is real, not an artifact of the photography.

Solenostemon scutellarioides 'Kingswood Torch.' I was originally very taken with 'Kingswood Torch,' though since the move, I've had trouble finding a bright enough spot for it, so now neither of us are happy. Maybe coleus and I aren't meant for one another after all. Long-time readers will be pleased to learn that the mutant with three-part symmetry is still maintaining the weird growth habit, though its growth also appears to be slow compared to the others.

Caladium NOID. This was some random plant from work that I happened to get a picture of. Turned out reasonably well, I suppose. Probably my second favorite of the batch.

Colocasia 'Black Magic.' One of the more interesting venation patterns I've seen, though I think this plant was sick or light-starved or something: it should be darker than this. The veins show up better on the lighter-colored leaves, though.

Misc.

I've added three worthy new blogs to the sidebar for everyone to check out:

Daffodil Planter, which I first noticed when it happened to be on a list at Blotanical right next to PATSP, and checked out because it claimed to be funny (it was). Particularly recommended is Are you one of these difficult garden center customers?, because it's really really really timely this month, and also funny. I wish I could print a copy and stick it on the front door at work, and make customers read it before coming in. But I can't do that.

Callus and Chlorophyll, which is less frequently updated but also funny, which I found out about because DaffodilPlanter sent me a message through Blotanical that I should check C&C out.

Random Rants and Prickly Plants, added because Claude left a comment on the post this morning, prompting me to check out his profile and then his blog, reminding me that I'd intended to add RR&PP to the blogroll at some point a long time ago and then forgot.

In unrelated news, I bought three six-packs of the above marigold (Tagetes patula 'Durango Bee') yesterday. I was originally planning to put them in a large pot with an elephant ear (Colocasia?) and call it good, but now I'm thinking maybe something else should go with the elephant ear, and the marigolds should get planted elsewhere. Probably some form of the original plan, in the end, 'cause I don't have enough time to think about other options. I'm just hoping I can keep everything alive until I have time to get it to the house and plant it.

My just-received copy of Wicked Plants, being held by the (poisonous) Pedilanthus tithymaloides.
I also just got my copy of Wicked Plants. So far, houseplants appear to be somewhat underrepresented, but they do get pp. 27-29, which I suppose will have to do. Review to follow . . . eventually.

[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.