Macrophotos

Plants   Eucalyptus (woodwardii?) blossom Eucalyptus blossom is unusual in not having showy petals or bracts as do most flowers; it is the stamens that give the colour and brilliance to Eucalyptus blossoms. Photographed using a Canon Ixus 190, 2021/05/05 Home Top Index   Eucalyptus (woodwardii?) blossom A detail from the same image as above. The high definition version shows a 2762×1943 pixel detail of the original, which is 5152×3864 pixels. Photo 2021/05/05, Canon Ixus 190   Pincushion Hakea, Hakea laurina Photographed with a Canon Ixus 190 At Gleeson Wetlands, Clare Photo 2021/06/18 Home Top Index Lichens

One of the best places I've come across to photograph lichens is on headstones. This and the following photo are in the Clare cemetery in Mid-North South Australia. Notice in the high definition image that the young lichens are becoming established on the dark mineral grains (pyroxenes, amphiboles and micas, rather than the quartz and feldspars) in the 'granite' headstone. This and the next two images were photographed with a Canon Ixus 190, 2021/05/01.

Lichen and autumn leaves on a headstone in the Clare cemetery This patch of lichen has old spore sacks. The Canon Ixus images often show less sharpness away from the point that the camera focused on. The depth of field for any camera is very shallow at high magnification; this must be so due to the laws of optics. A lichen that is not rooted at all to the ground. It must rely for moisture on rain and dew; how it gets its minerals is a mystery to me. The bright circle is a 10¢ coin, for scale. Photo Canon Ixus 190, 2021/09/03, between Kingston and Loxton on the banks of the Murray river. Another very interesting lichen. I don't recall seeing this species elsewhere. It was in the same area as the one above, the colours were distinctly different, the above one was much more greenish, this blue-grey. Photo Apple iPhone 7, 2021/09/03 Home Top Index Moss   ?Pseudocrossidium crinitum A moss, in the Clare area. I posted the image on SA Natureteers Facebook page and the identification came from there. Photo 2021/05/14, Canon Ixus 190 Moss on a karri tree in Shannon National Park, SW Western Australia. Home Top Index Photo iPhone 11 Pro, 4.25mm (standard) lens, 2022/08/30 Liverworts Liverworts at a friend's home in Collie, southwest Western Australia Like mosses, liverworts are under appreciated. They are very 'primitive' plants the ancestors of which evolved well before flowering plants. They propagate with spores rather than seeds. For more information see Marchantiophyta in Wikipedia. There seems to be controversy in the exact taxonomic classification of liverworts. Photo 2023/05/07, iPhone 11 Pro, standard lens, 4.25mm focal length Home Top Index Liverworts fascinate me, perhaps even more than do mosses. They seem not to be common in Australia, but perhaps that is more to do with them being inconspicuous rather than rare. Animals ?Wolf spider with spiderlings on her back Quoting from the Australian Museum's site: "The female constructs an egg sac of white papery silk, shaped like a ball with an obvious circular seam, which she then carries around attached with strong silk to her spinnerets. When the spiderlings hatch, they are carried around on the female's back until they are ready to disperse by ballooning or on the ground. Such a high degree of parental care is relatively unusual among spiders." Photographed using a Canon Ixus 190, 2021/03/21 Miscellaneous lifeforms   ?Fulgio septica (Dog Vomit Slime Mould) I happened across this brightly coloured slime mould in Gleeson Wetlands, Clare, South Australia on 2021/12/29. It was on a deep decomposing mulch largely of wood chips that had been in place for several years. Wikipedia's entry on slime moulds starts "Slime mould is an informal name given to several kinds of unrelated eukaryotic organisms that can live freely as single cells, but can also aggregate together to form multicellular reproductive structures." Photo iPhone 7.   Dried slime mould? Photo 2021/06/16, Canon Ixus 190 I recorded the image on the right on the Wine to Wilderness Trail near Tim Adams winery in the 'Clare Valley', Mid North South Australia. Home Top Index It puzzled me. I thought it most likely some form of lichen. I posted an image on SA Natureteers on Facebook. The probable identification came from there. Mineral   Dendrites Photo Apple iPhone 2021/05/08 These dendrites are in the Blinman Mine. I had seen and photographed dendrites elsewhere many times, but most or all had been exposed to the weather or at least to weathering. The sharpness of these immediately struck me. Dendrites are mineral deposits that formed in narrow cracks (joints) in rocks.