Photographic Art

Welcome to my photography and art website. In the near future, I am going to be making updates of my art and photographs collection.

Thank you to my colleague, Eric La Fountaine, for providing both today's photograph and write-up. Eric writes:

Pandanus tectorius is a very common sight on the Hawaiian islands. It is found in tropical Asia, Australia and on many Pacific Islands. It is generally thought to be indigenous to Hawaii, but additional varieties may have been brought by Polynesian explorers. It is sometimes given the amusing moniker, tourist pineapple, and I must admit I heard the words, "oh look--pineapples", from tourists looking at the plant. The background of the photo shows the dramatic topography of the Nā Pali Coast. By my estimation, the verdant peaks in this view rise around 250 metres (800 ft).

The shrubs or small trees are variable, generally growing 4-14 metres (13-46 ft) tall with similar dimensions of canopy spread. Pandanus tectorius is dioecious, i.e., male and female flowers appear on separate plants. The single trunk of the plant reaches a height of around 4 metres before branching. It is supported by a dense skirt of prop roots at its base. Long strap-like leaves are spirally arranged. As the plant grows in height, lower leaves fall off. Due to the spiral arrangement of the leaves, the now-bare trunk is left with a twisted appearance, leading to another common name, screwpine.

Pandanus tectorius is one of the most important plant resources to Pacific Island peoples. The species is used extensively for weaving, food and medicine, craft making, ornament, dye and other purposes. Both the seeds and fruit are eaten. Many varieties of the plant have been selected to best serve these cultural needs. Some provide better tasting fruit, others are more suitable for weaving.

Two pages of photos showing many aspects of the tree can be seen on Plants of Hawaii. To learn more, excellent articles describe the species at the Culture Sheet and at Pacific Island Agroforestry (PDF 1.82MB).

The Gentianaceae series is concluded with two photographs taken by local plant guru Alan Tracey (thank you!). They are photographs of the same species of gentian, but from locations over 12 000km (7000miles) apart. The image with many flowers was taken in La Parva, Chile, while the solitary flower was photographed somewhere along the Dempster Highway in the Northwest Territories of Canada.

Gentiana prostrata, or pygmy gentian, is a low-growing 3-7cm (to 3in.) tall annual. Its preferred habitat is wet meadows of high altitudes or tundra. Conflicting accounts of its range abound; the Flora of China account does not mention South America, nor does The Jepson Manual. Though both of these cite Eurasia and western North America, the absence of South America is curious. The species, after all, was collected by Darwin near the Straits of Magellan during the Voyage of The Beagle. Perhaps it is because the species was thought to have been dispersed to South America by albatross (might be a subscription-only link)?

Gentiana prostrata was scientifically described by the Bohemian-born botanist, Tadeáš Haenke. To read more about Haenke, an excellent compilation of articles about his life are presented in the Botanical Electronic News, Issues 287 and 288.

The second last entry in the series on Gentianaceae takes us to the Páramo of southern Ecuador, a high-altitude grassland ecosystem dominated by bunch-grasses. Another big thank you to Eric in SF@Flickr for sharing his photographs (original image | Botany Photo of the Day Flickr Pool).

The question was asked by Mary Hamilton in the comment section to Gentiana calycosa as to whether one of the "closed gentians" (that can be seen in New Jersey) would be featured. Mary was probably thinking of Gentiana andrewsii (see more photos), but there are other "closed" gentians and gentian relatives, including Gentianella quinquefolia and today's species, Gentianella hirculus.

Gentianella means "dwarf gentian" -- today's species reaches only 10cm (4in.) tall. The centre of diversity for the genus is South America, though the two hundred plus species are distributed throughout most temperate regions of the world. Gentianella hirculus is considered endangered by the IUCN Red List, with only 12 populations of plants remaining in the wild. Threats include grazing and, paradoxically, visitors to the park where most (all?) plants reside.

"Closed" gentians are either known or assumed to be pollinated by long-tongued bees (example). Take that, Gene Simmons.