A photograph from early this morning in the E.H. Lohbrunner Alpine Garden here at UBC. I'm making a bit of an effort to photograph anything red in relation to plants at the moment. This is in preparation for an early December presentation I'll be giving entitled "Red Reverie", in which I'll be discussing the colour red in plants, on topics ranging from food plant pigments to leaf colours, from attracting pollinators to preventing herbivory. Busy again today with meetings, but thought I'd sneak in a quick image for BPotD. For local readers of BPotD, autumn colours will continue to persist through this weekend, particularly in the Alpine Garden and the Carolinian Forest.
Beautiful!
Wonderful color! I hope you will share with your BPOTD fans what you know about red coloration in plants. Linda
What a surprise! I just visited this plant at UBC last week and was amazed by its color. Is the black actually a very deep red or green?
I assume you are seeing black where you should be seeing a deep green on the leaves of the rhododendron. The leaves were wet with frostmelt, so that contributes to their deep shade, but I also had to underexpose those leaves in order to get an accurate exposure on the single red maple leaf. A longer exposure would also (and did) result in the fallen leaves in the background being overexposed.
Lucky folks who live nearby. I, too, would love to have access to your presentation.
Here in New England, we are enjoying "red" well beyond the normal. A gentle fall, I guess, without too many storms has kept the leaves on.
Now that we have some computer equipment here for presentations that isn't 5+ years old, I'll see if I can find a way to record the presentation, perhaps, and make it available online.
Love the photo and hope that you can post the talk. I got interested in the red coloration in plants when I began noticing how prominent it is in spring and how it figures into spring holiday customs.
Waverly, if you have the time, I'd appreciate a brief note on what you've learned on that topic. I wouldn't be adverse to including cultural importance of red in plants into the talk.
..on youtube there are hundreds of presentations...from medical to astro-physics...teachers are uploading videos at a high rate...education for all..
Oh, it's not that I'm not familiar with uploading to Youtube. It's just that if I'm going to share a presentation, I'll want the images to be of a similar quality to what I present in person.
One usually thinks of red leaf color as a fall phenomenon. But I have an Acer palmatum 'Shin Deshojo' whose red color comes in spring. I often wonder about that as I gaze in utter rapture at my spring tree in seemingly autumn raiment.
Daniel, I'm glad you're thinking of making the presentation available online. I'm always wondering if I'm missing some noon-hour talks, and wouldn't have wanted to miss that one if I was invited, but I couldn't find anything posted.
Waiting eagerly for the "Red Reverie", thanks for that!
Good photographic composition.
Thanks for all the lovely pictures you share with us, Daniel. I have questions about red shades; if you answer them in your December presentation, I'll happliy wait for the video! I live in southern New Brunswick, (zone 5) and we had a cold night Wednesday. Yesterday, while walking, I noticed an Autumn Joy Sedum and a panicle Hydrangea with very intense dark pink to red colours. Do temperatures that hover around freezing intensify blooms as well as leaves? And; does the soil composition affect the colour of either?
By the way, I planted a Plumbago in my garden this year, and the red is striking; it really sets off the blue flowers.
Rob Guy and Jodie Krakowski (Faculty of Forest Science at UBC), wrote an excellent article on what is known about autumn colour in Davidsonia (a journal of botanical garden science) in 2003. You can download a pdf at http://www.davidsonia.org/autumn_colours .
red here is one for you red devils food cake
made with red vegetable food coloring
red hats red dresses for heart disease -red is also pink ribbons
red is the color of my true loves hair etc have a good one
Red is the color of Poinsettia leaves and Cardinals and Holly berries and winter. Here on the Gulf Coast of Texas we have no real autumn and have to make do with Chinese Tallow trees for color change. The leaves here either turn brown at the last minute and fall or stay green through the winter. So I love seeing red leaves.
It also reminds me of botany class where we made paper chromatographs of many different color leaves to see all the colors underneath the main color. What beautiful rainbows. Thank you, Daniel and all your fellow photographers, for bringing color to those of us who are chromatically deprived in the fall. And thank you for the rest of year when you share flora that we might never see otherwise or give us new perspectives on old favorites, you rock!
Thanks, Douglas.
Elizabeth,
Do you mean "yellow is the color of my true love's hair in the morning when we rise....." by Donovan? Red hair is also nice, but not the song unless I am missing something. Much of our foliage in RI has not turned color yet. Probably a product of the unusually warm weather.
Daniel:
very nice...
would love to hear you on utube.. or get the transcript of your talk...
RED is a color of joyous celebrations in India...
is color of Bindi on married Hindu lady's forehead..which is put on everyday after bath.. in readiness to pray to God for welfare of family, and the red tilak (as it is called) for the husband's well being and long life...'
Red is also the color of the brides' costume... she arrives at the marriage podium in a pure white (symbol of purity ) and half thru the marriage ceremony when the girl has been formally given in marriage and vows taken... the mother-in-law puts on her a red sari (often a very elaborate concoction with gold ) as a sign of an auspicious woman entering in the new family's circle.. and the rest of the Indian wedding ceremony is carried on...
I have been spending some months in India now and am slowly learning about my heritage... happy to share this with you...
You have been sharing wonderful photos with us/me... love them and learn a lot from them...
Usha