Ferns under the scope
I spent most of my day looking at spores under the scope. I did not know what I was going to see or what I was looking at half the time. Thank goodness for Google!
Purple cliff-brake spores (Pellaea atropurpurea) are the roundish things to the right side of the photo. This is at 400x.
These are cool and after googling I found out this is the annulus of the Pellaea atropurpurea. A part of the fern sporangium. Check out this blog to explain it.
Ebony Spleenwort (Asplenium platyneuron) at 400x. The whole structure is the sporangium. The annulus is the gear-looking part. I hope you read the link above. And the hairy brown things are the spores.
I squished them up pretty good or bad depending on how you think of it. But doesn’t it look like gears or some abstract art.
The sun was almost unworldly this morning at sunrise.
Lizardtail Gaura (Gaura parviflora) flowers have turned red. This has not been a banner year for this species.
A Dark Flower Scarab (Euphoria sepulcralis) on Flat-topped Goldenrod(Solidago nitida). It has been a few months since I have noticed this beetle species.
A Black Vulture was watching me closely.