Yesterday, I finally found the time to get out of the house for a few hours and take a bunch of brand-new photographs in nature. I found a few insects and got close to some interesting plants, so today I'm ready to write a type of post I haven't published in over a year.
The weather was sunny and warm, slightly humid, and the place was teeming with life. Now you may ask yourself: But wait, what place is he talking about? Well, you'll get the answer soon.
In this photograph, you can take a look at the scenery. The place is called Marlera, and it is a coastal area that has appeared in many of my posts here on Hive. It is situated near the village of Liznjan, only a kilometer or two from there, and about four to five kilometers from where I live.
As you can see, the vegetation is lush, the herbaceous plants are tall, and there is a lot to explore, especially if you have a macro lens.
There are many blackberry shrubs near the unpaved roads of Marlera. Here you can see a portrait of a blackberry flower. The scientific name of this specific blackberry species is Rubus ulmifolius.
Here you can see a leaf of the Rubus ulmifolius plant, but that isn't all that this photograph has to offer. On the upper surface of the leaf, there is a well-camouflaged bush-cricket, a Phaneroptera nana, commonly known as the southern sickle bush-cricket.
Near the lower branches of the shrub, I photographed these dry remains of the Briza maxima grass.
This is Dittrichia viscosa...
...a plant that covers large areas in Marlera. The flowers on the plants shown in this and the previous photograph have already lost most of their petals, but...
...but only about ten meters further, in an area covered with very tall, dried-out remains of various herbaceous plants, I found a Dittrichia viscosa...
...with flowers still in their prime. I noticed that the plants in sunny, open spaces exposed to winds that, quite often, can be pretty strong get the flowering phase over earlier than those in shady, humid places, at least partially sheltered from the wind.
Here you can see the tall, dry stems of the fennel (Foeniculum vulgare). Much closer to the soil, under these dry remains...
...I photographed a couple of shiny, iridescent leaf beetles. The scientific name of the species is Chrysolina herbacea. The beetles were mating on the living, green, and fragrant mint. Various species of mint are the host plants on which this insect depends.
This is Symphyotrichum subulatum, commonly known as the annual saltmarsh aster, a North American plant naturalized in many parts of Europe, especially the Mediterranean. Symphyotrichum subulatum produces a multitude of fluffy seeds at this time of year.
I saw quite a few of those parachute-like seeds floating on the gentle breeze. In the above photograph, you can see a Symphyotrichum subulatum seed atached to a slightly sticky leaf of Dittrichia viscosa.
In this wide shot, behind the Dittrichia viscosa plants that dominate the foreground of the picture, you can see one of the Aleppo pines(Pinus halepensis) that thrive in the stony parts of marlera. The abandoned stone quarry that appeared in quite a few of my posts here on Hive is very close to the place where all these photographs were taken.
Some branches on those pines were beautifully lit by the sun of the late afternoon.
The dark background provided by the nearby trees, pine trees that were in the shade, helped a lot, making the pretty ordinary scene something worth photographing.
Meanwhile, on the stony ground under the trees...
...grasshoppers were stridulating. You can see one of them in this photograph. The insect is very well camouflaged in its environment. It is much easier to hear it than to see it.
The name of the species is Chorthippus brunneus.
Here you can see another one. It is the same species.
This is the Oenothera lindheimeri...
...a plant that I don't remember seeing before. Maybe becouse it wasn't in bloom like yesterday, without a flower to catch my attention, or it could be that it wasn't there a year and a half ago when I last visited this area.
Today I learned that Oenothera lindheimeri is an ornamental plant native to North America. To southern Louisiana and Texas, precisely. People often throw plant material they wanna dispose of here in Marlera. That's probably the way Oenothera lindheimeri ended up growing here. It grows and prospers becouse it looks like a shrub. It is a herbaceous plant, but it looks like a fairly large shrub.
Among the leaves of this plant, I found a lovely shield bug that you can see in the two photographs above. The photograph on the right was taken with the flash; the one on the left, without it. The shield bug is a
Carpocoris purpureipennis nymph. Adults look considerably different.
Here is an Oenothera lindheimeri flower phottographed through a macro lens so you can take a good look at all the tiny details. Its petals are a bit shriveled.
This flower is much fresher. If you enlarge the picture and explore all the details, you'll notice a tiny ant on one of the petals. This is one of the Oenothera lindheimeri local pollinators. I saw these ants running all over the stamens and feeding on nectar in the center of the flower.
This decaying flower of the same plant is beautiful in its own right. A different kind of beauty.
Some leaves of Oenothera lindheimeri are green; others are red. There are also leaves that combine those two colors in different ratios. Some of the leaves are quite decorative.
Here you can see another plant with fluffy seeds. This one is a creeper. A climbing plant that covers other shrubs and small trees.
The scientific name of the species is Clematis vitalba. The straight twigs in the photograph belong to Spartium junceum, a shrub that the Clematis is using as support to grow taller.
In this photograph, a Phaneroptera nana bush-cricket is posing on a Spartium junceum twig.
This is the last photograph I prepared for today. The scientific name of the planr shown here is Artemisia annua.
AND THAT'S IT. THE POST ENDS HERE. AS ALWAYS ON HIVE, THE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE MY WORK.