FULL MOON SETTING

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,
and also part of the Saturday Silhouettes meme.

FRIDAY GREENS #48 - RONDELS

Welcome to this meme active every Friday. The theme is "Friday Greens" and you can post images, art, photos where the predominant colour is GREEN!

GREEN is the colour between blue and yellow in the spectrum; coloured like grass or emeralds.

This is a decorative piece of art for garden walls. The various shades of green and floral motifs complement the botanical riches of the garden...

I appreciate your comments, and please add a link back to this page from your own Friday Greens blog post.

The meme is only as successful as you make it be! Please add your own GREEN post using the Linky tool below:

BLACKBERRY FLOWER

The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the Rubus genus in the Rosaceae family, hybrids among these species within the Rubus subgenus, and hybrids between the Rubus and Idaeobatus subgenera. The taxonomy of the blackberries has historically been confused because of hybridisation and apomixis, so that species have often been grouped together and called species aggregates. For example, the entire subgenus Rubus has been called the Rubus fruticosus aggregate, although the species R. fruticosus is considered a synonym of R. plicatus.

What distinguishes the blackberry from its raspberry relatives is whether or not the torus (receptacle or stem) 'picks-with' (i.e. stays with) the fruit. When picking a blackberry fruit, the torus does stay with the fruit. With a raspberry, the torus remains on the plant, leaving a hollow core in the raspberry fruit.

The beautiful metallic green beetle is a Chrysanthia spp., which is a genus of beetles belonging to the family Oedemeridae subfamily Nacerdinae. It could well be a C. viridissima. The common name of these is 'green false blister beetles'.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme,
and also part of the Friday Greens meme.

BUTTERCUPS

This post is part of the Monday Mellow Yellows meme,
and also part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

ORANGE SUNRISE

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,
and also part of the Saturday Silhouettes meme.

FRIDAY GREENS #47 - GARDEN

Welcome to this meme active every Friday. The theme is "Friday Greens" and you can post images, art, photos where the predominant colour is GREEN!

GREEN is the colour between blue and yellow in the spectrum; coloured like grass or emeralds.

I appreciate your comments, and please add a link back to this page from your own Friday Greens blog post.

The meme is only as successful as you make it be! Please add your own GREEN post using the Linky tool below:

ALSTROEMERIA

Alstroemeria, commonly called the Peruvian lily or lily of the Incas, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Alstroemeriaceae. They are all native to South America although some have become naturalised in the United States, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Madeira and the Canary Islands. Almost all of the species are restricted to one of two distinct centres of diversity, one in central Chile, the other in eastern Brazil. Species of Alstroemeria from Chile are winter-growing plants while those of Brazil are summer-growing. All are long-lived perennials except A. graminea, a diminutive annual from the Atacama Desert of Chile. The genus was named after the Swedish baron Clas Alströmer (1736 – 1794) by his close friend Carolus Linnaeus.

Many hybrids and at least 190 cultivars have been developed, featuring many different markings and colours, including white, yellow, orange, apricot, pink, red, purple, and lavender. The most popular and showy hybrids commonly grown today result from crosses between species from Chile (winter-growing) with species from Brazil (summer-growing). This strategy has overcome the florists' problem of seasonal dormancy and resulted in plants that are evergreen, or nearly so, and flower for most of the year. This breeding work derives mainly from trials that began in the United States in the 1980s.

The flower, which resembles a miniature lily, is very popular for bouquets and flower arrangements in the commercial cut flower trade. Most cultivars available for the home garden will bloom in the late spring and early summer. The roots are hardy to a temperature of −5 °C. The plant requires at least six hours of morning sunlight, regular water, and well-drained soil.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

RED ROSE

It's well and truly rose time in Melbourne now and our garden is starting to bring forth more and more roses. This one is a very pretty, dark red rose that has the advantage of being very fragrant. The variety is "Tatyana".

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

SUNSET SILHOUETTES

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,
and also part of the Saturday Silhouettes meme.

FRIDAY GREENS #46 - HAWKWEED

Welcome to this meme active every Friday. The theme is "Friday Greens" and you can post images, art, photos where the predominant colour is GREEN!

GREEN is the colour between blue and yellow in the spectrum; coloured like grass or emeralds.

Hieracium known by the common name hawkweed is a genus of the sunflower family Asteraceae, and closely related to dandelion (Taraxacum), chicory (Cichorium), prickly lettuce (Lactuca) and sow thistle (Sonchus), which are part of the tribe Cichorieae. 

Hawkweeds, with their 10,000+ recorded species and subspecies, do their part to make Asteraceae the second largest family of flowers. Since most hawkweeds reproduce exclusively asexually by means of seeds that are genetically identical to their mother plant, clones or populations that consist of genetically identical plants are formed.

I appreciate your comments, and please add a link back to this page from your own Friday Greens blog post.

The meme is only as successful as you make it be! Please add your own GREEN post using the Linky tool below:

STRELITZIA REGINAE

Strelitzia reginae is a monocotyledonous flowering plant indigenous to South Africa. Common names include Strelitzia, Crane Flower or Bird of Paradise, though these names are also collectively applied to other species in the genus Strelitzia. Its scientific name commemorates Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, queen consort of the United Kingdom, wife of H.M. King George III.

The species is native to South Africa but naturalised in Mexico, Belize, Bangladesh, Madeira Islands and Juan Fernández Islands off the coast of Chile. The plant grows to 2 m tall, with large, strong leaves 25–70 cm long and 10–30 cm broad, produced on petioles up to 1 m long. The leaves are evergreen and arranged in two ranks, making a fan-shaped crown. The flowers stand above the foliage at the tips of long stalks. The hard, beak-like sheath from which the flower emerges is termed the spathe. This is placed perpendicular to the stem, which gives it the appearance of a bird's head and beak; it makes a durable perch for holding the sunbirds which pollinate the flowers.

The flowers, which emerge one at a time from the spathe, consist of three brilliant orange sepals and three purplish-blue petals. Two of the blue petals are joined together to form an arrow-like nectary. When the sunbirds sit to drink the nectar, the petals open to cover their feet in pollen.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

SUNSET

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,
and also part of the Saturday Silhouettes meme.

FRIDAY GREENS #45 - AGAVE

Welcome to this meme active every Friday. The theme is "Friday Greens" and you can post images, art, photos where the predominant colour is GREEN!

GREEN is the colour between blue and yellow in the spectrum; coloured like grass or emeralds.

Agave attenuata is a species of agave sometimes known as the "lion's tail," "swan's neck," or "foxtail" for its development of a curved stem, unusual among agaves. Native to the plateau of the State of Jalisco in central Mexico, as one of the unarmed agaves, it is popular as an ornamental plant in gardens in many other places. It is reportedly naturalised in Madeira and Libya.

The stems typically range from 50 to 150 cm in length, and eventually old leaves fall off, leaving them visible. The leaves are ovate-acuminate, 50–70 cm long and 12–16 cm wide, pale in colour, ranging from a light gray to a light yellowish green. There are no teeth, nor terminal spines, although the leaves taper to points that fray with age. The inflorescence is a dense raceme 2.5 to 3 meters high, with greenish-yellow flowers.

I appreciate your comments, and please add a link back to this page from your own Friday Greens blog post.

The meme is only as successful as you make it be! Please add your own GREEN post using the Linky tool below:

DIETES

Dietes iridioides (African iris, Cape iris, fortnight lily, Morea iris, wild iris, dietes) is an ornamental plant in the Iridaceae family. D. iridioides has white flowers marked with yellow and violet, with six free tepals that are not joined into a tube at their bases. These flowers last only one day.

The seedpods of the plant often bend the stalks down to the ground where they have a better chance of propagating new plants. The very similar Dietes grandiflora (Large Wild Iris) is a larger plant, which can be distinguished by larger flowers which have dark spots at the base of the outer tepals, and last for three days.These plants were formerly placed in the genus Moraea, but were reclassified because they are rhizomatous.

Grow in full sun or part shade. Although tolerant of tough conditions, Dietes will perform best in well-drained soil, rich in organic material. Fertilise occasionally and water during dry spells. Do not remove flower stems as they continue to flower for several years. Propagate by seed or by division of established clumps.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

QUINCES

The quince (Cydonia oblonga) is the sole member of the genus Cydonia in the family Rosaceae (which also contains apples and pears, among other fruits). It is a small deciduous tree that bears a pome fruit, similar in appearance to a pear, and bright golden-yellow when mature.

Throughout history the cooked fruit has been used as food, but the tree is also grown for its attractive pale pink blossom and other ornamental qualities. The tree grows 5 to 8 metres high and 4 to 6 metres wide. The fruit is 7 to 12 centimetres long and 6 to 9 centimetres across. It is native to rocky slopes and woodland margins in South-west Asia, Turkey and Iran although it can be grown successfully at latitudes as far north as Scotland.

The immature fruit is green with dense grey-white pubescence, most of which rubs off before maturity in late autumn when the fruit changes colour to yellow with hard, strongly perfumed flesh. The leaves are alternately arranged, simple, 6–11 cm long, with an entire margin and densely pubescent with fine white hairs. The flowers, produced in spring after the leaves, are white or pink, 5 cm across, with five petals.

Quince jam, jelly, paste and stewed fruit are all quite delicious and easily made. Quinces are also used as an ingredient in savoury food. You can find several recipes here.

This post is part of the Outdoor Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,
and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme.