Water Hemlock Cicuta maculata by lick.a.witch
Close
Hover over top left image to zoom.
Click anywhere to exit.
Members remain the original copyright holder in all their materials here at Renderosity. Use of any of their material inconsistent with the terms and conditions set forth is prohibited and is considered an infringement of the copyrights of the respective holders unless specially stated otherwise.
Description
I have probably over sharpened this, but it was quite blurred owing to the fact that a large hornet was buzzing around me with evil intent! I know this for a fact, because he was carrying neither binoculars nor camera, so bird watching or photography was not on his agenda. Neither, I might add, was I. But the hovers and other winged wonders gobbling up all the questionable goodness from this flower, most certainly were, and I was in the way!
As I did not personally wish to view the chasey, chasey, catchy, catchy, eaty, eaty which was about to take place - you can interpret that either as me being a kindly soul or a coward - I snapped and left him to it!
As for the plant - 'tis the cousin of the plant which poor old Socrates was forced to ingest, which was the aptly named Deadly or Poison Hemlock. This is Water Hemlock. It is just as poisonous as its cousin, but kills in a different manner. Not that it matters much. You're just as dead, whichever one is slipped into your horlicks!
It's a member of the Wild Parsley family, but unlike the safe varieties which have ribbed stems, this has a smooth and either purple speckled (Poison Hemlock) or as this one, a solid purple stem. However, apart from photographing them I stay well clear. Which is more than can be said of the fly population who seem to relish this plant more than any other down the valley, as can be seen here.
Apart from the sharpening, and the obviously plonking of an entire plant on the left hand side, I've left it alone.
Thank you for taking the time to look. ^=^
Comments (7)
durleybeachbum
That is really interesting and useful info about the stems, Carpathia! I didn't realise that. A rather beautiful image.
jayfar
Nothing wrong with this image Carpathia in fact I think it's very clear. Thanks for the info, I shall be taking mush more interest in my salads from now on!!!
tizjezzme
boy, is that a bizzy little place! Great shot! I dont think you oversharpened it at all. Looks great to me.
Blush
I knew a little about the plant That it was Poison but not all of the details Looks like if it was poisonous it would kill those wasp Hmmm maybe it does...ya reckon after they fly off they die? Now ya got me wondering I like how you sharpened the image myself Great capture and info Hugs Susan~
NitraLing
wonderful!
Chipka
Hemlock and hoverflies...it doesn't get any better than this! Well, hemlocks, hoverflies, and hornets is a safe bet for an intriguing, dramatic, and probably rather busy picture, but that's just me: which probably explains why I can't capture a decent butterfly shot, or a "pretty" insect shot. I'm far too mentally attuned to the things with rather, um, fly-specific eating habits, or spring-loaded harpoons that shoot out of their bums. So having said that, I will say that this is a lovely photograph, and hemlock looks far too fragile and beautiful to be so poisonous. It would seem that some flies are immune to its toxins, which allows me to think that humans'll never eat those flies. (I live in a strange world and fly eating is always a vague possibility, considering my own sense of dietary adventure.) This is gorgeous, and if you hadn't told us you sharpened this, I wouldn't have guessed that the sharpness is anything other than really good focus. Ah, but I'm also a fan of postworking stuff, so I heartily applaud sharpening and plant plonking, tweaking, and otherwise playing around with perfectly good photography.
alida
I do love all the input you give on your pics