Everyone recovering from Easter? I know Megan and I are. Fun, food, and family this weekend, but boy did it suck the energy out of me. Couple that with beginning my first full workweek in over six weeks, and I'm zapped.Yesterday, I posted a group of daffodils from Inniswood Metrogardens, a public park near Westerville Ohio, about 10 minutes from our house. I had never been there, and was hoping to get a few nice shots of spring flowering trees. Although that didn't really happen, I did get the image above, which is tight crop from my full frame shot.
There are a few interesting things about this plant, the first being that I don't remember its name, but I really should. It is in the genus Veronica, and it is a common lawn weed. It was one of the very first plants that I ran through Clara Weishaupt's Vascular Plants of Ohio dichotomous key, way back in 1998 while taking Prof. Matt Hils vascular plant class at Hiram College. At the time, I couldn't stand "running" plants through a key, and i'm not extremely fond of it still, although I do it all the time.
But take a look at those red velvet mites. Aren't they neat? The are absolutely TINY! The veronica flower is only 5 or so millimeters across, and the little red creepy crawlies are absolutely minuscule. I saw a dozen or so "serious" photographers that day, but I'm confident I'm the only one that had the patience to capture the smallest of the small at Inniswood.
Tom
P.S. Image will enlarge when clicked on.
P.P.S. Weston says hi. He's lying on my lap right now.
