Thursday, July 28, 2011

Stinger




































A stinging nettle Urtica dioica, spot-lit in a sun-fleck in the woods beside the River Swale, near Reeth this morning
Posted by at
Labels: ,

16 comments:

  1. RobJuly 28, 2011 at 8:57 PM

    Phil, That's a stunning photo.

    ReplyDelete
  2. PhilJuly 28, 2011 at 9:20 PM

    Hi Rob, I was surprised how well it turned out. I spot-metred it off one of the leaves and the contrast ration is so great that everything else around is black...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Stewart JJuly 28, 2011 at 9:34 PM

    That really worked, stunner of a pic Phil

    ReplyDelete
  4. fernenlandJuly 28, 2011 at 10:07 PM

    Great photo. We have urtica ferox or tree nettle in NZ. It's supposed to be toxic enough to kill a horse or human if you get sufficient exposure. I've heard it said (but am not willing to attempt to verify, lol) that the antidote is juice from the crushed leaves of the plant. There may be something to it. I used to spend ages clearing it but a pocket escaped my attention and to my horror I saw the alpacas eating the leaves one day - but with no ill effect. After that I stopped worrying about it, although I did notice that it seemed to be only at certain time of year that they nibbled on the leaves.

    ReplyDelete
  5. ValeriannaJuly 29, 2011 at 2:34 AM

    Wow, a beautiful portrait of my most trusted ally! I take lots of nettle tea to keep me going, when I'm quite out of sort, I mix it with seaweed, its quite the power drink!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. ADRIANJuly 29, 2011 at 2:36 AM

    This is a wonderful shot. I'll have to have a go at this technique.

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousJuly 29, 2011 at 3:56 PM

    It's a marvellous shot Phil.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Imperfect and TenseJuly 29, 2011 at 6:43 PM

    Stinging Nettle? No, that's a stunning nettle, Phil.

    ReplyDelete
  9. PhilJuly 29, 2011 at 7:24 PM

    Hi Stewart, it's fascinating how shafts of sunlight spotlight woodland plants during the day - it would make an interesting time-lapse movie..

    ReplyDelete
  10. PhilJuly 29, 2011 at 7:26 PM

    I've heard awesome stories of the effect of NZ tree nettle fernenland - out nettes are pussycats in comparison....

    ReplyDelete
  11. PhilJuly 29, 2011 at 7:27 PM

    Hi Valerianna, that sounds like a lowerful cocktail!

    ReplyDelete
  12. PhilJuly 29, 2011 at 7:28 PM

    I ought to experiment with spot metering more Adrian but whenever I do I tend to forget to switch back - and end up with pics with widely varying exposures...

    ReplyDelete
  13. PhilJuly 29, 2011 at 7:29 PM

    Thanks toffeeapple, I like the way the leaves are arranged in tiers...

    ReplyDelete
  14. PhilJuly 29, 2011 at 7:30 PM

    Thanks Graeme, it's some compensation for all the times I've been stung...

    ReplyDelete
  15. fernenlandJuly 29, 2011 at 9:08 PM

    It makes me wonder why urtica ferox needed to evolve to such a size and degree of toxicity in a land devoid of indigenous mammals of any size? Perhaps it was to avoid the attention of the giant moa. I've noticed that birds seem to have caste iron digestive systems. When I lived in Tonga for a few years as a child there was a chilli bush outside the kitchen window. Just a smidgeon of the juice from one of the red chillis on the tip of your tongue was almost unbearable. Yet the chickens used to gather under the bush and jump up, pulling down the ripe red chillis and eating them with great enjoyment...

    ReplyDelete
  16. PhilJuly 30, 2011 at 10:13 PM

    Interesting thought, fernenland. Birds do seem to be able to deal with toxic plants that we can't....pheasants can eat deadly nightshade berries that would kill a human.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)