Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: green flowers

This is a macro shot of the very small flowers of False Hellebore - the flowers are numerous, produced in a large branched inflorescence 30–70 cm tall. The leaves are very large and arranged spirally. Quite a spectacular plant to see - but POISONOUS. Taken on 19 July 2015 at Cameron Lake, in Waterton Lakes National Park. "The plant is highly toxic, causing nausea and vomiting. If the poison is not evacuated, cold sweat and vertigo appears. Respiration slows, cardiac rhythm and blood pressure falls, eventually leading to death." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veratrum_viride To have the chance to visit Waterton Lakes National Park in June was such an absolute treat, but to be able to visit this beautiful region again one month later was just incredible. I think I've only ever been maybe five or so brief times in the 37 years that I've lived here, so you can imagine my delight to get two chances in one year!! Actually, I signed up for the July trip (17-19 July) first and, though there were some aspects of the three-day trip that I wasn't particularly keen on, I knew this was a wonderful chance to go down south. Then, some time later, friend Sandy asked if I wanted to go down to Waterton in June for the Botany Alberta weekend. So, lucky, lucky me!! It was wonderful to again be surrounded by such magnificent scenery, go on a few pleasantly slow walks with plenty of time to look for, and photograph, wildflowers, insects, and a few birds. Lots of great company with people I already knew and lots of new faces, too. The trip was organized by Nature Calgary. Everyone was free to go wherever they wanted each day, but for the two nights, we stayed at the very basic Canyon Church Camp, off the Red Rock Parkway. Dorm-style cabins (about which I will say nothing, lol!), but they do have showers and even flush toilets at the camp. We were fed so well - lots of variety and good food. We were given two breakfasts and two suppers, plus a packed lunch for the two days. Our thanks go out to the lady (can't remember her name, sorry) who cooked and prepared these meals for us! They were so much enjoyed and greatly appreciated! Our first day, which included the long, 3-hour drive from Calgary, it rained all day long. Thankfully, the remaining two days were beautiful and sunny, and appreciated even more because of the first rainy day. The first day, we drove around Waterton town, calling in at Cameron Falls and then driving to Red Rock Canyon. We did the short walk along both sides of the canyon, in the rain, so it was pretty much useless as far as taking photos was concerned. I was happy to see a Swainson's Thrush there, the first time I had seen one close. On the second day, 18 July, some of us went to Cameron Lake. This is a beautiful lake and I love the small jetty and the colourful canoes lined up. Our walk took us along the right hand side of the lake, through the forest. One of my favourite plants that we saw there was Water Hemlock - though I had seen it before, I had never seen it this close and in such detail. The bees and other insects love it, too, with several insects on many of the flower heads. This attractive plant is one of the most deadly poisonous plants in North America. Two other plants that I was thrilled to see were Pink Monkeyflower and Yellow-flowered Monkeyflower. I had never seen these wildflowers before. Pearly Everlasting, False Helebore, Fringed Grass-of-Parnassus, Foam Flower, and Thimbleberry were just a few of the other plants we found. We were amazed at how many orchids there were - everywhere. Later on the second day, a few of us called in at Red Rock Canyon again and, because it was absolutely packed with people, we decided to do the nearby Blakiston Falls Trail. Along this trail, I was thrilled to see a few Pinedrops plants in flower - I had only ever seen them once before (at Cypress Hills), and they were in seed. Thanks so much, Debbie, for the heads-up about these plants that you had found earlier! We also saw a couple of Prince's Pine plants along this trail - a first for me. They look rather like Pink Pyrola, so could easily be overlooked. Later, in the evening on this day, our leader, Andrew Hart, took us to look at a wetland for Sandhill Cranes. He knew they can be seen there and, with the help of a spotting scope, he found a total of 7 seen from two lookouts. Barely visible with the naked eye, they were so far away. I just managed to get a 48x zoomed shot that was kind of fit to post : ) Andrew had also timed it so that we could drive along Chief Mountain Parkway afterwards, stop at the lookout and watch the sunset over the mountain peaks. The following morning, our last, some of us visited Cameron Lake again and then walked along the very short Akamina Lake trail (only 1 km return) that starts from the Cameron Lake parking lot. A beautiful little trail, where we found two Bear Grass plants still in flower, but well past their prime. Also watched a rather skinny deer making her way along the edge of the lake. A lovely walk to end our stay in Waterton Lakes National Park. Thanks so much, Darlene, for letting us do this, knowing that we needed to start on the three-hour drive north to Calgary. Thank you SO much, too, for driving three of us to and from Calgary and around the park some of the time, too. To say that we appreciated it is a huge understatement!! Our thanks, too, to Andrew for organizing this trip so brilliantly! A great time was had by all.

I know RED is your colour, Rebecca : ) Also, red is considered a lucky colour, so thought I'd use this Indian Paintbrush to go with my very best wishes for tomorrow and the recovery time afterwards. Good Luck! I took this photo when I was out west of the city yesterday afternoon, at Maclean Pond. Sorry to hear about your extremely high temperatures! Created with fd's Flickr Toys

For the first time ever, I used my little Raynox 250 macro lens outdoors, when I drove out to the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains two days ago. I normally only use it in my kitchen on flowers, waterdrops, etc. However, this time I thought I would finally try it out on wildflowers. I knew that there must be no movement at all when using this lens so, armed with my little table-top tripod, I set out from home. Well, I hit four lots of rain that afternoon, and it was rather windy! Tried out my lens and, needless to say, was disappointed. At least it got me closer - now I just need to see if I can get any sharper on a windless day - LOL, in Alberta??? Calgary is a windy city, and it seems that the wind is almost always blowing within the city and outside it. I always feel rather isolated from the rest of the world when I'm in the mountains, so it was definitely not a pleasant feeling when a pair of Hawks of some kind flew from behind me and right above my head, checking me out no doubt, while I was down on all fours, nose just a few inches from the ground, eye to the viewfinder. The rushing sound as they passed over my head was tremendous - I wondered what on earth the noise was when I heard it coming, despite the fact that I have been dive-bombed by Hawks before now. You wouldn't believe how many different kinds of butterfly flew by while I had my macro lens on. My camera has to be about 6" away from the subject when I take supermacro shots. It's such a hassle to remove the tripod, change the Conversion, etc., so I had no chance for shots. Still, my purpose for this trip was to see if there was a particular plant growing in a certain area again this year. It is a mystery plant so far, one that has puzzled me for about six years, wondering what kind of Castilleja (Paintbrush) this is. Maybe two separate plants of it this year, but I want to go back and have another look when it's not raining and windy. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castilleja