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 🙂

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

 

Ephemeral

The ephemeral beauty of a dandelion seed head. All that is needed is a puff of wind to send the seeds floating to begin their adventurous journey. Many won’t make it, but those few that do will continue this cycle for the rest of us to admire and enjoy.

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A dandelion seed head.

 

Welsh Poppies

The last couple of years have seen these orange poppies flowering in my garden and I know I never planted these! These are the Welsh Poppy (Meconopsis cambrica).

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Welsh Poppy (Meconopsis cambrica)
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Welsh poppy

These are obviously wild flowers but they’re certainly not unwelcome in my garden!

Both pictures photographed with a Nikon D7000 and a Sigma 105mm f/2.8 macro lens.