Outtakes from ABC Wednesday
Every week when I participate in ABC Wednesday I have a lot of pictures left over from that particular letter. This week I went with Foliage as the ‘F’ word (that sounds funny) and had ‘F’ruit as a back up. So I thought I would go ahead and post the fruit pictures. The definition of fruit in Botany is: the seed-bearing structure of a plant, e.g., an acorn. It was easy to find all sorts of examples of this out in the garden this time of year. I actually had many more examples of this type of thing but decided to post these. The first picture is from the Estate and is the seed capsule of Large Leafed Cucumber Tree (Magnolia macrophylla). I read somewhere that this tree holds the record for having the largest simple leaf in North America. It really adds a tropical feeling to gardens in this area as it almost looks like a Banana Tree.
This second photo is from a Fragrant Snowbell Tree (Styrax obassia). I don’t know why more people don’t grow Styrax because they are beautiful small scale trees that don’t seem to have too many problems. At least my experience with them is they are trouble free and very rewarding. They bloom a bit later than most of the flowering trees around here. This picture was taken in Monochrome with my Nikon Coolpix 8400. It is an awesome camera that has so many features I still learning about them. When they were discontinued by Nikon the price fell through the floor and I only paid $399. What a bargain. It gives you a choice of 2 different User Settings, which can be selected via the little wheel (there is probably a technical term for the wheel). You can set the various menu items for each one and toggle back and forth. I have one set to the color setting I like and the other to the Black & White settings. That makes it easy.
This third picture was taken at Wave Hill last Saturday afternoon. The Grape Arbor hangs over part of the terrace outside the little café. Sometimes it feels so weird being in the Bronx and sitting under a beautiful Grape Arbor. I didn’t see what type of grapes they were.
