Sunday, June 5, 2011

An unexpected beauty

 "Look closely. The beautiful may be small."   ~ Immanuel Kant


This morning I came across an article about lichens in the excellent New Zealand Geographic magazine, which included this beautiful 1904 lithograph (Ernst Haeckel Artforms of Nature )


As I am always intrigued and attracted by small and intricate objects, the picture 
sent me to the net, and on a site called The Hidden Forest I found some 
exquisite photos of New Zealand lichens:


Baeomyces heteromorphus, 12mm high; found on exposed soil and road cuttings

Chrysothrix candelaris, 100mm; found on trees and often mistaken for paint!
Cladina confusa, 90mm; found on disturbed ground

Cladonia pityrea, 50mm
Usnea pusilla, 40mm
Placopsis gelida, 40mm in diameter; found on river stones
Cladia retipora, 70mm
Xanthoria parietina, 15mm in diameter; growing on a plum tree
These and so many others - so delicate, so lovely. Red, white, black, green, orange - every shade except blue, and all kinds of different shapes and forms. They made my day!

"If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole
life would change"  ~  Buddha



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