Butterflies and Cotton Flowers
Nov. 22nd, 2005 06:48 pmThis afternoon I went to the Tucson Botanical Gardens with a couple of friends. I spent nearly an hour in a greenhouse full of tropical butterflies and moths; huge brown moths; shimmering blue butterflies like dancing pieces of sky; zebra-striped butterflies; fluttering wings in black and white, scarlet and orange and brown and patches of irridiscent green.
Afterwards we spent another couple of hours wandering around the gardens, in a mild, gently clouded afternoon. There were cacti the campus doesn't have, and flowering vines, and a few outdoor butterflies, and a ramada of interestingly insect-eaten native woods. And then there was the cotton plant, obligingly illustrating every stage from flower to fluffy white cotton to empty flour-lobed pods. I'd had no idea that cotton had such lovely flowers, white and pink-flushed, delicately veined and furled.
I took lots of photos, of course, and a few short bits of video. The way LJ is lately, I'm not going to try posting them right now. I'll probably get to it later, though.
Afterwards we spent another couple of hours wandering around the gardens, in a mild, gently clouded afternoon. There were cacti the campus doesn't have, and flowering vines, and a few outdoor butterflies, and a ramada of interestingly insect-eaten native woods. And then there was the cotton plant, obligingly illustrating every stage from flower to fluffy white cotton to empty flour-lobed pods. I'd had no idea that cotton had such lovely flowers, white and pink-flushed, delicately veined and furled.
I took lots of photos, of course, and a few short bits of video. The way LJ is lately, I'm not going to try posting them right now. I'll probably get to it later, though.
