Eye of the Storm

MirrorVerse Vortex, Sideblog

[pr1nceshawn]

How Food Looks Before It’s Harvested.

Sesame Seeds

Cranberry

Pineapple

Peanut

Cashew

Pistachio

Brussel Sprouts

Cacao

Vanilla

Saffron

Kiwi

Pomegranate

[sexy-svetlana94-deactivated2014]

The actual smell of rain comes from plants. When plants are in drought they produce oils in replacement for waters. When the time comes and it finally starts raining the plants get their needed water and they release these oils in the air and the smell of that oil is what we call smell of rain

[lesbian-moon-gf]

the scent is called petrichor

[vivanlosancestros-deactivated20]

This is my absolute favorite smell

[botanyshitposts]

is it possible that plants have consciousness?

this is actually a small sub branch of botany thats been growing and gaining some recognition in the past 5 years or so called plant cognition! we’ve been thinking about if plants can possibly be intelligent to any degree for centuries, but the main paper that started up this huge discussion in the modern era was one called Experience Teaches Plants to Learn Faster and Forget Slower in Environments Where It Matters by Monica Gagliano, a plant researcher in Australia who specializes in it. because the results indicated that plants were possible of learning and retaining information in a kind of memory in response to environmental changes, it received a lot of backlash and denial- generally in science, that kind of intelligent reaction to an organism’s environment is a good indicator of cognitive behavior in the organism. it got rejected by 10 different journals before being published in 2014. 

the experiment worked like this. i’ve talked before about mimosa pudica, a tropical plant that curls its leaves back when touched (they go back to normal in a few minutes):

this is to help deter predators among other things. but in this experiment, Gagliano used it as an indicator of stimulus and to test cognitive function. It’s well known that pudica has a rudimentary nervous system that can even be temporarily inhibited using anesthetics (just like ours can!). she hooked up a ton of these plants in pots to identical rail systems that allowed them to be lightly dropped in an identical way, juuuuust heavy enough to trigger the stimulus so all the leaves drop down when they hit the bottom (a piece of foam so they wouldn’t actually hurt the plants). every time the plants would be dropped, they would close up. 

but after the plants were dropped about 60 times each, they stopped responding to the drop. 

they remembered that no harm was coming from this action and decided that it was against their best interests to keep expending energy closing their leaves. they 200% learned to stop. 

she decided to test it further. she put some of the plants in a shaker and let them receive a more jarring response; the plants closed up as usual. then, she put them back in the droppers and dropped them again. they didn’t close up. they had remembered that response. this dispels the obvious rebuttal to this experiment of the plants just being tired; they still closed up when stimulated differently.

they just chose not to close up when they hit a stimulus they remembered. 

it turns out that not only could they remember to keep their leaves open when dropped on the apparatus, but they remembered after 28 days when she kept testing it!! apparently by the end of the experiment, all the plants had decided to keep their leaves open when dropped!!!!

how do they do this?? we literally dont know. they have no central brain, only a basic nervous system. can other plants do this??? 

well, adding onto that, venus fly traps can count! like. they have three hairs inside their traps, and all three must be touched within 20 seconds for the trap to close. once closed, those three trigger hairs must continue to be stimulated by thrashing prey, or the trap will reopen. 

so yeah like. basically ‘are they sentient’: apparently to an extent???? we dont know exactly why or how but they are??? maybe???? sort of????? at least some of them are?? but they dont have a brain so everyones like????????????????????? maybe its through a signaling network????????????????? but like how would that even work?????????

plant consciousness is still new enough to be dismissed as crazy by a lot of biologists but like. the evidence is there. we don’t know a whole lot and its clearly a radically different kind of intelligence than we know in animals, but it’s there and we 200% dont know how it works yet or even the full extent of how plants use this intelligence (for example: does a redwood have the same intelligence as a venus fly trap?? how does it learn things and use that knowledge???) 

national geographic wrote an awesome article visualizing the experiment here if you want to read more!

[rinasaurusrex]

what if instead of drops, rain fell all at once.

like, a two inch thick sheet of water just goes thwap, and then it’s sunny again

[mx-inactive-deactivated20211028]

Fun fact: This is what would happen if there was no air resistance, and it would actually come down so fast that it would kill us

[rinasaurusrex]

oh.

[giraffepoliceforce]

Thank you, air resistance, for allowing us to die in normal ways like eating a peanut or being so old our body stops working.

[zandraart]

pastel grove

[ironperennial-deactivated201810]

Helleborus Winter Jewel // Onyx Oddyssey

Helleborus X Hybridus Winter Thrillers // Grape Galaxy

Chocolate Cosmos

Black Calla Lily

Asiatic Lily

Black Velvet Petunia

Karma Choc Dahlia 

Just a few flowers I’d put in the “goth section” of my dream garden, alongside gargoyles. I’d probably throw in some Persian shield for foliage, maybe some other dark coleus. 

[fantasticbeasts]

Frank

[1000drawings]

Let it fall by Soaring Anchor Designs

[kieraplease]

https://instagram.com/p/BQD1HPEADFc/

[matialonsorphoto]

un espejismo, una rebelión

by matialonsor

[screenshotsofdespair]

[thelastdiadoch]

144-Year-Old Wisteria In Japan With Branches Protruding Out Half-A-Mile Long  

“It’s a rainbow, it’s a roof, it’s a tree? This 144-year-old Wisteria located in Japan looks nothing like your ordinary tree. With branches protruding out half-a-mile long, standing beneath this tree makes you truly feel like you’ve slipped into another world. A world where an enchanted pink sky hangs like a canopy overhead.

The pink and purple blooms typical to the wisteria tree are spread wildly throughout, extending far and wide. The ginormous vines stretching out of the tree are held up by steel rods placed throughout. Otherwise, the weight of the branches would cause the tree to collapse in on itself–potentially trapping awed visitors inside!

In all seriousness, the steel rods make it possible to venture beneath this tree and see how stunning it looks from the underside. From inside, the light pours in through the brightly colored vines, reflecting off of the flowers in unimaginable ways.

There are wisteria trees in many parts of the world, but one of the most well-known gorgeous giants is located at  Ashikaga Flower Park. After looking at these photos I’m ready to book the next flight to Japan!

Planted around the year 1870, this tree has since brought so much delight. The wisteria is at its peak beauty between mid-April and mid-May.

Tourists and locals come to visit this tree, the sights that it offers never get old. Not only is the tree fun to gawk at from all angles, but the vines give off a lovely aroma, reminiscent of grapes.

I love this photo (above) because you can actually see the tree branch in all its curved glory. It’s not really a tree branch but rather a tangle of thick vines. Either way, the trunk’s shape makes this tree all the more mystical in my eyes.

You can see the rods supporting the heavy vines of the wisteria, wisteria that do not have a surface to grow up, or support them, will fall and start to grow into a large heap.

Depending on what time of day you visit, the lighting changes offering a world of diversity. Beware, even though this tree appears beautiful the seeds that it sheds are actually poisonous.

A part of the pea family, the light brown to pale green seeds shed by the wisteria are rather large. Not only are they poisonous, but they are also explosive. When left out unattended, they are known to explode, popping open and splitting apart with a loud sound.

Wisterias look like they have regular tree branches, but they are actually vines. These vines can climb up any nearby support systems, and can grow as tall as 20 meters.

Within only a few years a wisteria can gain a substantial amount of weight. Still, the wisteria will take its time developing to the point where it produces blooms, some take several years. Don’t give up on your wisteria tree just yet, others take as long as 6-10 years to bloom. According to these images, it’s well worth the wait.  

Japan’s large wisteria is not the only one, nor is it the largest. There is a wisteria located in Sierra Madre, California that stretches an entire mile long and weighs over 250 tons. This wisteria was planted back in 1894.

If you don’t live close to any huge wisteria trees, at least you can plant and grow your own wisteria. Within one year they can grow 10 feet!

Wisterias aren’t all that hard to look after either, according to the US Plant Hardiness scale they are one tough hunk of bark! Even capable of growing in soil that is of poor quality.

Feeling obsessed with these photos? Wisteria has a way of luring people in, hence the name. Wisteria symbolizes “passionate love” or “obsession” in the Victorian language of flowers.“

[dancingcadavers]

This is where I want to get married. Nature is fucking amazing

[ladyinterior]

Magnificent Trees Around the World

[kothringi]

When Ken Morrish picked this apple off a tree in his garden, he thought a prankster had painted half of it red.

But after inspecting it closely he realised that the remarkable split colours on the fruit were a natural phenomenon. And the bizarre apple turned Mr Morrish into something of a celebrity in his village with scores of neighbours queuing up to take a photograph of it.

Experts say that the odds of finding an apple with such a perfect line between the green and the red are more than 1million to one. [source]

[the-axiom-of-choice]

My Biology major boyfriend got a scholarship for excellence in Botany as well as a scholarship for excellence in Biology and Zoology

I asked him if this his possible and all he said was “I don’t know, plants are fucking weird”

[badgengar]

“I don’t know, plants are fucking weird” - From someone that studies biology.

[gif-tv]

[newcrunchyp0rnflakes]

Well… the rains gotta stop somewhere

[mxmoony]

Oh my god, someone has footage of it! I remember one time my dad, lil brother, and I were leaving a Ryan’s. We were waiting for a chance to hop onto the road and in the distance we just saw everything turn grey. We saw it come closer and closer and come to find out it was rain! It was just a wall of rain - the end of the rain, really. I’ve never seen it again, but it’s so cool to see footage of the edge of rain!

[aestheticacadema]

[shitiunderline]

Seen under a morning sun, with a fresh wind blowing, and the air filled with the crying of birds, there was something fine and fresh and clean about its loneliness.

C. S. Lewis, The Silver Chair (via shitiunderline)