Looking like a stained glass window, this is the remains of the seed pod of one of last summer's garden flowers, Lunaria annua (commonly known as honesty, because the dry seed pods resemble silver coins), magnified around two hundred times and viewed using polarised light. When honesty seed pods ripen they are flattened and composed of three components. Imagine three large 'coins' joined to each other all around their rims, with the central 'coin' attached to the plant via a stalk. Swelling…
Вот так живёшь и не замечаешь, что у тебя под самым носом, буквально, куда не посмотри, скрывается удивительный волшебный мир. Даже в самых обычных вещах повседневного обихода, начиная от полиэтиленовых пакетов и заканчивая обычной бумагой, скрыта необыкновенная красота. Достаточно только…
There aren’t many insect species that live in the intertidal zone. The two you’re most likely to encounter are the springtail called Anurida maritima that scoots across the surface of rock pools on the upper shore and seaweed flies Coelopa frigida that breed in vast numbers in the rotting heaps of seaweed that pile up on the strandline. Even fewer insects complete their life cycle actually submerged in salt water but one is this little chironomid midge called Clunio marinus, that I found…
