Artichoke!

The artichoke (Cynara cardunculus) is a type of thistle whose unopened buds (hearts) are used in Mediterranean cuisine. The photograph below is that of the wild (and therefore inedible variety) artichoke, also known as cardoon. That the artichoke is closely related to the thistle is clear from the purple head of petals that sit on top of the flower.

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Cynara cardunculus

Photographed at the New York Botanical Gardens on 22nd July, 2013 using an iPhone 4S. Later processed in Adobe Lightroom simulating a single frame HDR.

Related Articles:

http://juridicious.com/2012/08/13/british-wild-flowers-thistles/

Wildflower Diaries – iPhoneography

I went out with my miniature macro attachment to the iPhone last week and captured photographs of a few wildflowers. Apart from the overall mediocre image quality (thank you Apple!) and extremely shallow depth-of-field, the macro adapter does a reasonably good job.

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Goat’s Beard (Tragopogon pratensis) seed head
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Sun spurge (Euphorbia helioscopia) flower
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I-don’t-know-what-this-is-yet tiny pink flower πŸ™‚

All photographs from an iPhone 4S with a macro lens attachment. Post-processed in Adobe Lightroom 5.0.

 

Wildflower Diaries – Sainfoin

Sainfoins (Onobrychis viciifolia) belong to the pea family (Leguminosae/Fabaceae). My trusted Collins Complete Guide to British Wildflowers tells me that these are generally found in dry, calcareous grasslands, which is exactly where I found these growing!

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Sainfoin inflorescence
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A single Sainfoin flower
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Side-on view of a Sainfoin

All pictures with a iPhone 4S, the bottom two with an external macro lens attachment. All pictures corrected for contrast and white balance in Adobe Lightroom 5

 

Wildflower Diaries – Sun spurge

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Sun spurge (Euphorbiaceae) – highly poisonous

I bought myself a cheap andΒ  tiny macro attachment for the iPhone. While it was nice being able to photograph details of flowers using this, the quality is as to be expected – both by the camera on the phone and quality of the attachment. Nonetheless, I will be using this more when I don’t want to be lugging a camera with me on a walk