Some Schoepfle Garden Take-Away
May 24, 2021
Here are some photographs from two recent trips to Schoepfle Garden.
1 Sun shining on ripples always catches my attention. 
2 The previous photograph shows the shale riverbed. This one shows water flowing over some glacial erratics resting on the shale.
3 Yesterday I arrived too late for morning light to illuminate the films of Leptothrix discophora that I found. By the time I got to Schoepfle, the sun was almost overhead, and the film doesn’t show its colors then. But a few weeks earlier I was surprised to find several instances of the films.
4 I expect to find more of the films as the warm weather continues.
5 This is a close crop of the previous photograph.
6 In mid-April some trees were just beginning to leaf out.
7 I’d never seen these flowers before yesterday. My resident botanist says they are not native and are “in the lily family.” When I asked if they were lilies, he said no. This combination of information must make sense to some people.
8 In mid-April the sweet Williams weren’t entirely overrun by May apples.
9 On my way home yesterday, I stopped in the road to photograph this field of buttercups.
Romancing Reality 
I wonder if scientists have come up with equations that describe the ripples on creeks, as in your first two photographs. In #8, the leaves do an attractive job of framing the wildflowers. #3–5 make me wonder if anyone has done a film about those films. #9 makes it look like your drive home took you through Texas.
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May 24, 2021 at 6:00 PM
Your wondering about the ripples makes me wonder how ripples occur at all. The answer (see https://www.scienceabc.com/eyeopeners/what-causes-ripples-in-water.html) to my wondering includes this: “Ripples in water are more formally known as capillary waves . . . .” And capillary waves and gravity–capillary waves do have equations (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capillary_wave). A newly graduated Oberlin College student to whom I introduced Leptothrix discophora films almost four years ago will start graduate school this fall in large part to study L. discophora and its ilk. He has made very short films of L. discophora films and I wouldn’t be surprised if he makes more and longer ones in the future. Especially interesting would be movies of the bacterial films in slow motion that show the films’ development over a period of days. So Texas has buttercup fields, too.
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May 24, 2021 at 9:13 PM
It’s good of you to have found those two articles. The term capillary wave is new to me.
When I referred to Texas I wasn’t thinking of buttercups in particular. We do have several species of buttercups, but large displays of yellow here typically come from other kinds of wildflowers.
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May 24, 2021 at 10:40 PM
How is the new camera doing? Always good to be able to crop closer on the details. 🙂 Have fun!
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May 25, 2021 at 1:16 AM
Thanks; I am having fun with the new camera, Harrie, and part of it is shooting at the end of my telephoto zoom lens (200 mm), but being able to get even closer in processing with a close crop (since this camera’s sensor is 45 megapixels).
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May 26, 2021 at 8:38 PM
Love the textures you found on the shale riverbed
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May 25, 2021 at 3:51 AM
Thank you, Sue. I love it when the water runs clear, as it did Sunday, and you can see the riverbed.
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May 26, 2021 at 8:38 PM
Good pictures, and I love the text for number 7!!! 😂
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May 25, 2021 at 4:21 AM
Thanks, Adrian. I should probably ask him if they aren’t lilies, then what are they. But maybe I’ll just live with the mystery.
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May 26, 2021 at 8:38 PM
I knew it would eventually come to me. We have that flower in #7 growing, entirely on its own, in the yard. It is Ornithogalum umbellatum, a member of the asparagus family although it does not put up the spears, and has a couple of common names…Star of Bethlehem and Nap at Noon. It is not a U.S. native. It is also called a Grass Lily although as your friend told you, not a lily.
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June 3, 2021 at 2:47 PM
Thank you, Steve. Not only do we now know the names of the flower in #7, but we also know that it’s not in the lily family after all.
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June 3, 2021 at 8:55 PM
I love this post, Linda – so much beauty – from the classic landscape with those trees growing out of the rock to the Leptothrix films. Even though they don’t show as much color in that light, I like what happened. It’s more abstract, I suppose, which isn’t necessarily better, just different. The sheen on them is like mercury or milk or something and coupled with the rocks in #3, it’s very handsome. The ripples are gorgeous, too – the clarity and warmth are attractive. I KNEW that flower was familiar, from when I lived back east, and I’m so glad Steve nailed it – I remember the Latin name, now that I see it. #8 has a lyrical flow to it, and what delicious colors, right? I keep coming back to the odd but sensible progression from 54 to 65. Brilliant, that one.
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June 3, 2021 at 9:52 PM
Thank you, Lynn. I’m glad you liked this post. When I was a girl, my mother sewed me what was called a “full skirt” of green and purple cloth. I can’t remember the pattern, but I remember the colors, and the sweet William and May apple plants pictured in #8 made me think about the skirt. Some loves never leave us. I always look forward to your comments, Lynn, but I have to admit that e I’m baffled by “the odd but sensible progression from 54 to 65.” Would you help me understand?
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June 4, 2021 at 12:01 PM
I remember full skirts! My mother sewed for me, too and once in a while a vague memory of a fabric drifts back – I wish I photos of those dresses I used to wear to school. I’d sit there, bored with class, examining the print. 🙂 Wow, 54 to 65!! I meant #5 to #6, sorry I didn’t review the comment. It’s the way the Leptothrix in #5 drifts downward into the tree branches, which reach upward, in #6. The colors aren’t the same but they harmonize. Now you get it, right? 😉
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June 4, 2021 at 2:33 PM
Yes, now I get it, and I see what you mean. Thanks, Lynn. I love the way you look at things!
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June 5, 2021 at 10:13 AM