Christmas Bells

Christmas Bells
Christmas Bells - Blandfordia nobilis

Wednesday, October 06, 2010

What's wrong with this photo?

This had me puzzled, one day last week.

I was out in the bush, above the Macquarie Pass.
You can now appreciate the height of the cliff face above the road below.


Here is the original puzzling image in close-up.
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check out the lower image
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Here is the answer.
This tall Leucopogon lanceolatus was growing over the rock
on which the moss was growing.

This is one "heath" plant which is happy to grow in tall wet forest
(on sandstone).
This one was within metres of the sandstone cliff edge,
but it is one of the wettest parts of the Illawarra Escarpment.
Of course, the drainage and wind exposure
would compensate for the heavy rainfall.

But, in this region, the Leucopogons are heath plants
found more commonly on dry, shallow sandy soil.
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So, that was what was wrong with the photo.
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The flowers had fallen base-down, as the base of the flower is heaviest.
So it looked as if the flowers were growing from the moss.
But mosses do not have "flowers".
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Imagine each tiny white flower as a shuttlecock.
As each flower falls from the tall shrub above,
the bottom (heavy) part of the flower
adjusts itself to fly through the air first.
And so, the wider, more wind-resistant part of the flower follows.
So each flower ends up looking as if it is growing out of the moss.

4 comments:

mick said...

An interesting puzzle and solution. My book on local plants says that plant also grows up this way and it is one of the perfumed varieties. The photo over the cliff edge is spectacular! I hope your footing was secure!!

Denis Wilson said...

Hi Mick
Yes, you would also have that plant. It is nice, and as you say, sweetly perfumed.
Cheers
Denis

Wilma said...

Thought for a few seconds that you had discovered a new evolutionary stage for that moss!

Denis Wilson said...

Good Call, Wilma - that's something like what mt brain was trying to grapple with - out in the field, until I realised they were just sitting on the moss, not part of it.
Denis