Dan Antion from No Facilities blog host’s Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge. This week he is continuing with his Perspective Challenges. This week is from a perspective of Up Close. This week I am combining CFFC with the Numbers Game using the Theme of Up Close.
Here are my Up Close photos I’ve pulled together for this week’s challenges.
Brown Bear Riverbanks ZooRiverbanks Zoo & Aquarium Columbia, SCCrotalus unicolor Aruba Island RattlesnakeColeman 2021 Lake Wylie, SCGalápagos giant tortoise (Chelonoidis niger)Plains Zebra (Equus quagga)Sea Lion underwater ASCG HorseSea Lion underwaterPisgah Inn (me) Blue Ridge Parkway OctopusColeman visiting Greenway Horses 2021Koala Brachiosaurus at Carowinds ASCG HorseZinnia elegansAmerican beechZinnia peruvianaRocky Shoals Spider Lilies Landsford Canal State Park Feral Cat ZinniaColeman 2021Coleman 2025ASCG HorseEastern tiger swallowtailRudbeckia fulgidaColeman 2021Ebony jewelwing Calopteryx maculataLineberger ParkCarowinds
To play along, go to your photos file folder and type that number into the search bar. Then post a selection of the photos you find that include that number and post a link to your blog in my Numbers Game blog of the day. If instead of numbers, you have changed the identifiers of all your photos into words, pick a word or words to use instead, and show us a variety of photos that contain that word in the title. This prompt will repeat each Monday with a new number. If you want to play along, please put a link to your blog in comments.
The Yucca Gloriosa, also known as Spanish Dagger, is a native evergreen yucca in the southeast USA on the coasts of North Carolina south to Florida. [This plant is in the Piedmont region of North Carolina.] It grows as a shrub or small tree and can grow up to 16 feet tall but is relatively slow-growing.
Yucca gloriosa
The leaves are in a basal rosette on younger plants and are sword-shaped with sharp tips. Eventually, it will develop a woody trunk with a more tree-like form. [This particular Yucca plant is a shrub with bayonet like leaves which are crowded in the lower area and spread outwards at the top. The plant is heat, humidity, drought and salt tolerant and can tolerate some cold and snow.
TheYucca gloriosa(Spanish Dagger) attracts the Yucca moth (Tegeticula yuccasella) for pollination as well as the larva feeding on the seeds. It is said that the Yucca plant flowers also attracts bees and hummingbirds, however, I have not seen them around it as of yet.
Camera: 1-2) Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max; 3) Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max
Location: Old Town; Riverside Community; Cramerton, North Carolina, USA
God Bless. Stop and enjoy the flowers. Have a lovely day. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.
My entries this week for Cee’s Midweek Madness Challenge we’re all taken when Coleman and I went hiking at one of his favorite places, Anne Springs Close Greenway.
Muhlenbergia capillaris (Hair-awn or Pink Muhly) Checking you out …The Gulf fritillary or passion butterfly (Dione vanillae) on Zinnias
Spotted touch-me-notImpatiens capensis, the orange jewelweed, common jewelweed, spotted jewelweed, jewelweed, spotted touch-me-not, or orange balsam
Impatiens capensis, also known as, Jewelweed has a long history of use in Native American medicine. When applied topically, sap from the stem and leaves is said to relieve itching and pain from a variety of ailments, including hives, poison ivy, stinging nettle, and other skin sores and irritations.
Jewelweeds are found in locations all over the Piedmont region and other areas of the Carolinas. As you can see from the top picture the flowers are rather small. They feature 1″ long, rear-spurred, cornucopia-shaped, orange to orange-yellow flowers with reddish-brown spotting.
The flowers bloom from June to frost. Each flower dangles from a leaf axil on its own slender stalk. It is a herbaceous annual that may grow 3 to 5 feet tall. It can be naturally found in areas of moist soil including forests, streambanks, and bogs.
These particular Spotted touch-me-nots are located along a dense moist trail behind an unused soccer field. The dirt trail winds around and contains many elevated manholes which are accessible to city or county utility officials.
We have seen Jewelweeds in other areas we have hiked but until searching for more information I had not known the many medicinal applications it contains. They are attractive to hummingbirds for their nectar from June until early frost.
Zinnias are subtropical and tropical upright annual flowering plants in the Asteraceae family which boast an abundance of daisy-like flowers. They are native to North and South America.
Original Peruvian Zinnias
These and other Zinnias are grown in the Memorial Wildlife Garden contained within The Farm at The Schiele Museum of Natural History in Gastonia, North Carolina. The Farm is located to the left as you enter the Nature Trail area outside the Museum walls.
Coreopsis lanceolata is a North Americanspecies of tickseed in the family Asteraceae. It is native to the Eastern and Central parts of the United States, naturalized in Canada, the Western United States, Mesoamerica, South America, South Africa and Eastern Australia. It is found in open woodlands, prairies, plains, glades, meadows and savannas.
Rudbeckia hirta is a short-lived perennial that should be treated as an annual. It may likely endure few winters, but will often self-seed prolifically. The flowers are showier than other Rudbeckia species and have been widely hybridized. (Clemson.edu)
Ostrich Riverbanks Zoo Columbia, South Carolina Orange Day-lilyCymbidium Latigo ‘Cookesbridge Sunset’ OrchidSimpson’s grass pink and it is in the Orchid family (Orchidaceae)OrchidsOHIOAtlantic Ocean My Eldest Son and I at the Atlantic Ocean in Topsail Beach, North Carolina February 2017
Common Name(s): Carolina Wild-petunia Wild Petunia
The Carolina Wild Petunia are extremely common in North Carolina. They are found in lawns and woodlands. This Wild Petunia was seen at Anne Springs Close Greenway along the trails at the Adventure Road Entrance. Many times, even though these flowers are beautiful, they are overlooked and sometimes considered a lawn weed. The Carolina Wild Petunia’s flowers only last a day, but they also have a long flowering period which compensates for the shorter blooming time.
Carolina Phlox is a lovely long-flowering native with clusters of purple-pink flowers.Phlox carolina, the thickleaf phlox, is a species of flowering plant in the family Polemoniaceae.
The specific epithet carolina refers to its native habitat in the eastern United States. It grows in woodland edges and openings. Flowers attract bees, hummingbirds, and butterflies.
These flowers are really small herbaceous perennial. They have grass-like evergreen foliage and lilac-purple flowers which produce single-seeded berries on a spike in the fall.
‘Prairie Sun’ Black-eyed SusanRudbeckia hirtaRudbeckia hirta is a variable species that provides a splash of color in the summer garden with its brightly-colored yellow and gold blooms.
Sunflowers follow the sun… But did you know
When it is cloudy and gray, they face each other and share their ENERGY. Imagine if PEOPLE would do this too.
Gfpacificbee’s Insights & photography 