Violets - spring is here at last on Flickr.
Oops! Almost forgot to post something for #violets Wednesday.
Neither spring nor local violets have arrived around these parts, yet… but I’m looking so forward to both. I’m tired of all this bleakness and cold weather.
One day, the queen of flowers
Saw blooming in her field
A graceful violet
Endowed with every charm.
But one day the queen of flowers
Said to the violet:
Child of my kingdom,
What other gift can I give you?
And the shy flower answered:
A blade of grass to hide me.
— Anaïs Nin (age 11): “The Shy Violet”
Viola hederacea, by Jeffdelonge at Wikipedia
Photo taken at Jardin Botanique de Lyon in April 2006.
Native to Australia, Viola hederacea is a striking example of a ‘wild’-type violet that’s nevertheless cultivated in gardens. Wikimedia Commons has other photos of the species, but this one did best at showing the almost waxy translucence of the petals, as well as the cream-and-plum hues, distinctive veining pattern, and unusual overall shape of the flowers. M. de Longe’s deft use of lighting and depth of field truly elevate this from merely another example photo to a work of art as exquisite as the flowers themselves.
Click the image for a larger view; click the ‘source’ link below for the information page at Wikimedia Commons.
Remove the photographer-credit information and/or links when reblogging, and you will experience a rash of ugly, uncomfortable pimples in an uncomfortable place.
Source: commons.wikimedia.org
GardenAfternoon Path (by just zl for photos)
(Fixed link so it goes to the main photo page with all the information, instead of the All-sizes page — which doesn’t contain a link back to the main page because Yahoo abhors user-friendly design. To get to the all-sizes page from the main page, just click the +magnifying glass icon above the image to go to lightbox view, then click “View all sizes” in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.
And I changed the title from “Garden Path” to “Afternoon Path” because the latter is what Google translate was quite clear that the tag jzfp put on the photo, 午后小道, means afternoon trail/path.)
So, there isn’t quite a clear enough view of any of the hundreds of flowers for me to be certain they’re violets, but from what I can see, they’re at least consistent with violets’ flower shape and the growth habit of some species. So I’m going on the assumption they are violets.
Today is violets Wednesday… but I’ll be spending most of the day lobbying for improvements to my state’s home-care program for disabled adults (like me and my darling dearest) up in the capital, and I’ll probably be too drained to do much Tumblring when I get home. So I figured I should get this week’s violet post up now!
(via seasonsschange)
Source: Flickr / zclphotos
A single violet, flowering amidst the stalks of some moss, captured in the rich, slanting golden light of late afternoon: It’s Violets Wednesday again!
(The second photo is not of a violet plant, but rather some other wildflower with a lavender-and-white bloom, possibly a succulent.)
Magic hour in our backyard
Violet Leaves and Blue Flowers
No, it’s not a new Lucky Charms gimmick, but rather a case of mistaken identity. The heart-shaped leaves in this photo do indeed belong to a violet plant or plants, but, on closer examination, the flowers seem to belong to a different plant: the Asiatic dayflower.
At least here in eastern North America, the two flowers are often seen closely-associated, as seems to have been captured in this photo. Few if any of the dayflower leaves (which would be narrower and smooth-edged) are visible, just the flowers on their stems poking up from beneath the thick growth of violet leaves. The most striking difference between a violet blossom and an Asiatic-dayflower blossom is that dayflowers have just the two round blue petals situated above their stamen-and-pistil complex, whereas, while violets do tend to have two medium-sized petals above the reproductive parts of the flower, there are also two smaller petals flanking those, and one larger petal opposite the two at the top.
Dayflowers tend to be a much more vivid and less purplish blue, also. While there is some variance, largely dependent on the characteristics of the soil they grow in, it’s probable that the indirect lighting in sarameli’s photo made the flowers seem less bright than they actually were. (That’s presuming she didn’t adjust the color digitally, as people often do to make actual violets look more blue, presumably inspired by the ‘roses are red…’ rhyme.) Violets, of course, come in shades spanning the deepest purples through the purest white, and violet petals can be lavender or pink or even yellow, but are rarely closer to pure blue than pure purple. The closest to true blue I’ve seen on a violet blossom has been dark veining on pale or white petals. Violets also have less exuberant pollen-producing and -receiving parts than are typical of the Asiatic dayflower.
#ny #NYC #newyork #manhattan #USA #centralpark #upperwestside #flowers #spring #violets (Taken with instagram)
In other news, Instagram has been bought by Facebook for one billion-with-a-b (milliard for certain European counting systems; ten figures; 1 000 000 000) U.S. dollars. So it will probably start sucking in privacy-violating and/or annoying-marketing ways. But look on the bright side: At least Yahoo! didn’t buy it.
When is a Violet Not a Violet?
Technically, these are pansies, not violets… but pansies are hybrid flowers bred, crossed, mutated and re-crossed from wild violet species. So, even more technically, they are violets.
(via small measures: edible spring wildflowers | Design*Sponge)
wannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnt.
How have I never thought to pair violets with blueberries before?
#violets have to be one of my favorite #spring #flowers (Taken with instagram)
One of my favorite spring flowers, too! Though I enjoy them all year.
#Violets cannot be tamed; they must grow wild and free #TriSigma (Taken with instagram)
Oops! I almost forgot to post for Violets Wednesday… and it looks like I did forget last week, so I guess maybe I’ll find and post another to make up for it.
