For them not interested in reading, you can see the photos in THIS<<link SmugMug Gallery.

For a SmugMug slideshow click HERE<<link. When you click the link, it will open in a new window and you have two options:
1) Manually scroll through the photos by clicking the “<” and “>” symbols to the left or right of the photos.
2) There’s a PLAY/PAUSE button at the top-left of the screen with the transition set at about 5 seconds. Note: clicking the PLAY arrow will run a full-screen slideshow. You can then still use the”<” and “>” symbols to the left or right of the photos as this will pause the slideshow.

If you manually scroll, you can click anywhere on the photo to get the 100% view of the photo. The cursor will change from a (+) to a hand symbol and you can click-and-hold to drag the view. Click again to zoom out.

If you want the full experience, keep reading.

Oh, I should also mention . . . the “P” stories aren’t ready for public consumption. Hopefully by tomorrow or Friday at the latest.

Some might remember previous posts about this plant. Well, dead plant. Here’s a quick gallery of the previous photos and a few new ones.

The plant in question is this a Dipsacus<<link, also known as teasel<<link. If you click on the link, you’ll read how the cultivated plant was used (from Wikipedia):

Fuller’s teasel (the cultivar group Dipsacus fullonum Sativus Group; syn. D. sativus) historically saw wide use in textile processing, providing a natural comb for cleaning, aligning, and raising the nap on fabrics, particularly wool. The product of the teasing process is called teased wool. It differs from the wild type in having stouter, somewhat recurved spines on the seed heads. The dried flower heads were attached to spindles, wheels, or cylinders, sometimes called teasel frames, to raise the nap on fabrics (that is, to tease the fibers).

The one I picked from the wild (there are many along the I-57 median and along many side-roads) looks like this:

Note that this isn’t the full plant (it’s missing the portion shown in the first photo). Unfortunately, it’s so tall (close to three feet) that I couldn’t get it all in the frame.

I could have used my ultra-wide lens, but that gets into other issues, plus it means you don’t see as much detail in the photo because the subject is too small.

As it is, you’re losing a fair amount of detail.

Note: there are some shots that have two versions. It’s because, for each set-up, I shot one photo with flash and one without. The two methods produce slightly different shadows and highlight different details.

I’ll put most of the photos in galleries so as to make them easier to scroll through.

For me — and what attracted me to the plant — the seed pod is the most interesting part, although the spiny leaves and stalks hold their own beauty.

Yes, some are the same, but remember . . . different lighting. Notice the cobwebs . . . they added a bit of interest to the already interesting pods.

. . . as did this snake that must have died in its spikes . . .

Don’t see it? I’ll have a closeup in a moment.

Here’s how the lighting can change the look of a subject . . .

Here are some close-ups of the pods and the spikes . . .

. . . and the snake . . .

I was actually trying to get a decent focus on the seed . . . sleeves?

In the process, I got this next shot . . . which I liked and kept.

But, here, let’s look where the seeds of the plant come from . . .

After all that, I went back to shooting the peripherals. By then, one of the leaves had fallen off, but I was mostly interested in the stuff next to the stem.

And, that’s me teasing you with a teasel plant.

That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below.

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