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

This isn't maybe the prettiest set of transmitted light photos I've got, but what they lack in beauty, they make up for in having unusually diverse textures. Or at least that was the feature that jumped out at me when I first looked at them as a group.

Ordinarily when I post a set of transmitted light photos, I'm doing so because I can't come up with anything else to post. Not the case this time, though: this time, I'm doing it because I had the realization that if I don't start posting them once in a while, I'm never going to end up publishing them all.

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

Ficus microcarpa.

Alcea sp. Obviously a leaf from late in the season: a spring leaf wouldn't be as scarred and torn.

Acer sp., autumn.

Pulmonaria 'Raspberry Splash.' One of the two Pulmonarias I planted when we first moved in died this spring; the other had to be relocated and, I fear, may not come back. It needed to be divided, I think, but the husband was the one who moved it, and I hadn't told him it needed to be divided, so . . . we'll see what happens, I suppose. I think I like Pulmonaria well enough to buy replacements if the survivor doesn't come back, but maybe I won't need to. We'll see.

Polyscias scutellaria. The photograph is, I think, a technical failure but an artistic success: the shadows are maybe excessive, but they also make me think of bubble wrap, which I like. (Who doesn't like thinking about bubble wrap, after all?) This is actually, I think, my favorite photo from this set, despite being plainer than most of the images that follow.

Strobilanthes dyerianus.

Epipremnum aureum. It's strangely impossible to come up with a decent transmitted light photo of E. aureum, and I have no idea why. It's like Dracaena deremensis varieties and Tradescantia pallida -- however many different ways I try of doing it, I still always get crappy photos. But what do the three of them have in common that Philodendron hederaceum, Dracaena fragrans, and Tradescantia zebrina don't? It's a mystery.

Glycine max, dead leaf. This improves a bit when full-size. It's also one of the more map-like leaves in this set.

Begonia 'Soli-Mutata.' The texture is pretty striking by reflected light, too, though the colors aren't going to make anybody's list of most colorful Begonias.

Calathea makoyana.

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

I'm fairly close to being done with the Fittonia profile; I finally made some serious progress on it over the last couple days. So my blogging energy is going toward finishing that, for now. I'm hoping to have it up Thursday. [UPDATE: Thursday didn't happen, but the profile was finished.] Therefore, transmitted light photos.

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

Glycine max.

Liquidambar styraciflua, autumn.

Philodendron mexicanum. I realize this may not look all that interesting, but P. mexicanum leaves are green on top and reddish underneath (unusual for Philodendrons, or at least the commonly-grown ones), so the muddy color here is for a cool reason. I've tried to get a yearbook picture of the whole plant, but it's very hard to find an angle that shows both the green top and the red underside.

Chlorophytum x 'Fire Flash.' This pleases me, just because I've taken a lot of photos of 'Fire Flash' that were out of focus, or where the color was off in some hard-to-fix way. This isn't gorgeous or anything, but it's accurate, and I'll settle for accurate.

Solenostemon scutellarioides 'Splish Splash.' I'm undecided about whether the dead spots on the left of the photo make this image more interesting, or less interesting.

Quercus sp.

Hydrangea macrophylla Endless Summer 'Twist-n-Shout.' I'm uncertain how much of that is the actual variety name; it was all on the tag.

Begonia NOID.

Quercus sp., autumn.

Caladium 'Fire Chief.'

The Last Glycine max Post Of The Season

I had a different post planned for today, but it was going to involve a lot of manipulation of graphics, so I wound up not having time to work on it. Fortunately, they harvested the soybean field behind the house on Wednesday afternoon (Very dusty!), so I can now bring you the Exciting Season Finale of the Glycine max saga.




Technically, of course, there's more to the story than this: I could show you pictures of the empty field, which is the real end of the story. I figure it's better to end the story on the photogenic stuff. Or, you know, the more-photogenic stuff. I don't know how into soybeans everybody is, but I'm guessing you're probably more into soybeans than you are empty fields. Let me know if I've miscalculated.

Unfinished business: Glycine max pods

Hiatus was . . . strange. I can't go into the details yet, but things were weird enough that I wound up not really getting anything done on the blog, beyond a little bit of work on the next plant profile (Ficus elastica).

Which didn't seem like that big of a deal on Friday night -- I still had a whole day to work on it -- but I felt unwell all Saturday, which is when I'd planned to, you know, blog. So we have the continuing story of the soybeans in the field behind our house. I took this picture on 21 September.


As you can see, the leaves have begun to die back. Most of them are actually a lot more yellow/brown than you can see in the picture. I knew that this would happen at some point, of course, but I didn't expect it to be so abrupt. I mean, it wasn't that long ago that they were a really deep, dark green. It's like someone threw a switch.

Random plant event: Glycine max pods

In the continuing story of our backyard soybean field (check out the earlier post to see the flowers), we now have the beginnings of the soybean pods. This part, at least, was a little bit familiar to me, since I've seen the mature pods before, and these are pretty similar.


Not the most shining examples of nature's beauty. I mean, it's no sun-setting-over-a-wildflower-ringed-serene-lake-while-a-V-of-geese-fly-south-for-the-winter-overhead.

But, you know, they're soybeans. Only so much I can do. Maybe they get prettier as the season progresses. I doubt it, of course. But maybe.

Random plant event: Glycine max flowers

I'm finding it very difficult to organize the information I've collected for the Schlumbergera profile, so that's going to take a little longer than what I'd originally said. And frankly, the original deadline (yesterday) was pretty optimistic to begin with.

So is the new deadline (next Wednesday).

(UPDATE: It's finished.)

Meanwhile, did you know that soybean plants have flowers? They do! The flowers, like Ryan Seacrest, are small, pinkish, and not very interesting, but one can at least see why soybeans are classified in the pea family (Fabaceae), and get some sense of how the plant works.


The most surprising thing about this particular event is that I'd never seen it before. Living in Iowa, you'd think it would have come up before, but somehow (possibly due to my finding corn waaaaaaay more interesting than soybeans) I missed it.


I wouldn't have seen it this year, except that the field that begins where our back yard ends is planted in soybeans this year, instead of corn like last year. (I liked the corn better: more picturesque. Though the soy is looking a little better now that they've filled in a bit.)


This last photo is really big, should you want to open it in a separate window and see all the gory details.