Photographing Tiny Things

So many things have happened lately. Someone told me about Geocarpon minimum, a rare and very tiny plant only found in two counties in Texas, Harrison and Anderson. The plant can only be seen for about two weeks in the year, the end of February and the beginning of March. It's been found in saline prairies, so I thought Grand Saline would be a good place to look for it. However, the Morton Salt Company owns the town's salt prairies, so I looked along the roadside outside of the mine. I had no luck. I wish at least part of the salt prairie could be turned into a preserve because it's such a unique ecosystem.

I ordered a set of extension tubes for my camera so I can take photos of tiny things, mainly bugs and tiny flowers. I've been practicing with them and went to Daingerfield State Park, the park I've picked for a year-long personal bioblitz. The number of species now is just under 300. How high can I get? I'm going to try to pick a different park each year, one that doesn't have many observations.

This Saturday, I have a class on lichens and one on bryophytes next Saturday. It's going to be a busy couple of weeks.

Posted on March 13, 2018 02:09 AM by cosmiccat