Flowers 2011 (Photoclubalpha Flora)

[Greg Beetham]

Lovely bokeh MarkK, pretty flower too.
Quite moody those berries aborabasta but btw did you notice the flowers down at the bottom right? And what a great bottlebrush study that is.
Greg

[agorabasta]

No, Greg, there are no flowers down below. Those are the top leaves of the nearby bush suffering from six weeks of drought. Normally, only the topmost leaf would be reddish.

And then, the last rays of the dying sun are actually cast on them from below on the right while the ground level is already shaded. So they really glow.

[gio67]

[jcoffin]

That's a very nice shot @gio67! Definitely like how the stems in the water all form leading lines toward the fish. My only quibble would be with the minor distraction toward the top (drain grating?) but there's probably not much you could do about that.

[gio67]

That's a very nice shot @gio67! Definitely like how the stems in the water all form leading lines toward the fish. My only quibble would be with the minor distraction toward the top (drain grating?) but there's probably not much you could do about that.

thanks jc,

that was more good luck than good judgement,
there's none so blind as he who will not see, I never even noticed the grate

[David Kilpatrick]

Can anyone here identify exactly what this infestation of palm (and many other) leaves is? It's been destroying plants in Tenerife now for several years. At first I thought it was a mealy-bug (common there) but thousands of whitefly were taking wing near this specimen, and I can't find any clear reference to the thread-like structures from what look like cocoons.

Picture is Shirley's - the Sigma 18-250mm is quite incredible for securing macro detail without a macro lens.

infestation2-sk.jpg (407.57 KiB) Viewed 2723 times

[Greg Beetham]

David the smart money is on that parasite being one of the whitefly versions. http://itp.lucidcentral.org/id/palms/sap/Whiteflies.htm apparently now a major pest worldwide.
Greg

[David Kilpatrick]

Thanks Greg - I am sure that is the one - spiralling whitefly. They were doing exactly that in the air.

Trouble with Tenerife is that it also hosts large populations of scale insects - mealy bug and cochinella - which have destroyed two important cactus parks over the last ten years.

David