Sensational Nature

A friend gave me the most amazing book of patterns recently, called Dynamic Form in Nature by David Wade. It just "belongs" in my hands! Here are a few pics to show more of my affinity for patterns in nature.

This might be the type Variegatus, a cop-out of a name

One kind of pattern is called Filices (fernlike formations)

Here are some mosses trying to be fern-like

And this one is called Bruised Apple😀

Pleated Inkcap

Petite and delicate, this Pleated Ink Cap looks as if it's trying to be an Aster. They appear overnight after rain and disintegrate rapidly. Before the pleats split open, they resemble cocktail umbrellas - they're called Parasola plicatilis.

Leaf Blush

I always think these Indian Cucumber Root (Medeola virginiana) leaves look as if they're blushing about the overtly voluptuous fruit they produce. It's a beautiful understory native.

A flush of crimson

Splashed across the leafy whorl

Beneath the bold fruit

Larval Stalactites

These critters hanging down as they saw away in unison along Speckled Alder leaf edges are probably Sawfly larvae. It looks as if you can see the munched up green leaves through the skin of some of them! They go through several larval stages and are distinguished from caterpillars (single larval stage only, in moths and butterflies) by having more than 5 pairs of prolegs, and they lack the crochet hook ends to these legs. (Now, will I remember that? I'll try ...)