Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: stigma

This beautiful, yellow Hibiscus plant was growing in the ENMAX Conservatory at the Calgary Zoo, on 6 October 2015. The flower centre is always fascinating, I think, especially when seen up close. Love the texture of those bright red stigmas. "Hibiscus is a genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae. It is quite large, containing several hundred species that are native to warm-temperate, subtropical and tropical regions throughout the world. Member species are often noted for their showy flowers and are commonly known simply as hibiscus, or less widely known as rose mallow. The genus includes both annual and perennial herbaceous plants, as well as woody shrubs and small trees." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hibiscus

This beautiful, yellow Hibiscus plant was growing in the ENMAX Conservatory at the Calgary Zoo, on 6 October 2015. The west entrance to the Zoo will be closed from today, 13 October, till April 2016, so I did want to get in one last visit before then. I don't like the drive home on Deerfoot Trail from the north entrance, so tend not to go to the Zoo all winter. "Calgary's infamous freeway has taken the dubious top spot when it comes to this city's most dangerous place to drive." From the Calgary Sun. "Hibiscus is a genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae. It is quite large, containing several hundred species that are native to warm-temperate, subtropical and tropical regions throughout the world. Member species are often noted for their showy flowers and are commonly known simply as hibiscus, or less widely known as rose mallow. The genus includes both annual and perennial herbaceous plants, as well as woody shrubs and small trees." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hibiscus

Macro shot of a pink Christmas Cactus taken on November 4th. Seven of the next 10 days have snow in the forecast, so I thought I'd better get out this morning, just in case the weather forecast turns out to be right. Such a beautiful morning once the sun came out. Met a few friends down at Inglewood Bird Sanctuary and though there was not all that much to see, we did have a pair of gorgeous Hooded Mergansers fly in and land on the lagoon. I've only ever seen these from a great distance, but today they were a little closer and I think I have finally got a few closer shots.

Couldn't resist this small Easter Cactus plant when I went grocery shopping the other day : ). Thought it would make a change from the more usual photos of Christmas Cacti flowers. Such a pretty flower when seen up close, and such a gorgeous colour. Seem to remember it was snowing, raining and very windy when I bought it, LOL. "These plants are originally forest cacti, growing as epiphytes at elevations between 1000 and 1700 meters (3300 to 5600 feet) above sea level in the Organ Mountains north of Rio de Janeiro in southeast Brazil, South America.... Many modern holiday cactus cultivars are hybrids between Schlumbergera truncata and S. russelliana, first bred about 150 years ago in England." From Wikipedia.

I just had to take a few photos of the very centre of an Easter Cactus flower, of the stigma (with bokeh stamens) - I think it's so pretty. The flower itself is maybe an inch in length. We are in the middle of a dreadful Wind Storm, with extremly high winds and snow - definitely a day to stay home (Wind Warning in effect)!! In fact, I think I'll go and make myself a mug of hot coffee right now : )

I bought a small macro lens for my little point-and-shoot a few weeks ago (Raynox 250). I've only tried maybe a dozen shots and this is the only one that has even a tiny speck of anything close to sharp, LOL! I find it interesting to see just how close one can get - in this case, to the insides of a Tulip. I can see there must be a real knack to using it, plus an awful lot of practice. One of these days ...