In the voluminous surviving pages of Leonardo Da Vinci’s notebooks can be found the first detailed study of the fractal branching rule in forest ecosystems. Da Vinci, that incomparable renaissance genius, included in his analysis detailed diagrams illustrating the rule. Amongst present day environmental scientists, it is now well known that this rule can be used as a predictive tool. Briefly, the rule states that starting from the trunk of a tree; daughter branches and twigs have the same combined cross-sectional area as the branch from which they originated. Detailed research (some of which has been mine) has now demonstrated that this relationship applies to an entire forest system. An entire forest can be fractally modeled as if it were a single tree. This has enormous economic implications. Taking a census of an extensive forest system is very costly. Computer fractal branching rule models now exist, which vastly reduce the census costs. Also, these models allow calculation of the greenhouse gas adsorption capability of a forest. Now we come to today’s rendering. An extensive pristine forest will always have isolated areas where life explodes in a cacophony of exuberant growth. The diversity of species soars. The sheer life energy in such places is amazing (and incomparably beautiful). At different times of the day, their character changes. Generally, they are not large places and typically are roughly 100 feet or so in diameter. The environmental conditions in these places are not noticeably different from those of the surrounding forest, yet they go simply bonkers (a technical term) in luxuriant growth. Interestingly, such places are predicted in the model and are defined as examples of fractal chaos “strange attractors”. Shamans I have known refer to these areas as “Places of Power” and I am quite comfortable with that characterization (that, after all, is what a strange attractor is). In fact, I will go so far as to say that is the ‘mot juste’. I have seen many of these areas over the years and today’s rendering is an attempt to convey the sheer life exuberance in them. I have tried to illustrate this in several of my previous renderings and I am not content with any of them, including this one. This is not in the least bit frustrating; I enjoy the process. So I shall keep trying. This does give me a chance, however, to try out the hybrid bulb featured in my last two postings. Created in Ultra Fractal