A Touch of Elegance #3

by Bruce Bley

Title

A Touch of Elegance #3

Artist

Bruce Bley

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

This macro photograph of a white tulip was taken while visiting the RoozeenGaarde, Tulip Farm in Mount Vernon, Washington. The garden is redesigned and replanted each fall with over 1/4 million bulbs and over 150 different flower varieties. The RoozeenGaarde was established in 1985 (which means "roses" in Dutch). The Roozeen family and Washington Bulb Company. Inc. The Roozengren family business of growing Tulips, Daffodils, and Irises is the largest in the world, covering Skagit Valley with more than 1000 acres of field blooms and 15 acres of greenhouses.

Tulips are spring-blooming perennials that grow from bulbs. Depending on the species, tulip plants are between 4 inches (10 cm) and 28 inches (71 cm) high. The tulip's large flowers usually bloom on scapes with leaves in a rosette at ground level and a single flowering stalk arising from amongst the leaves. Tulip stems have few leaves. Larger species tend to have multiple leaves. Plants typically have two to six leaves, some species up to 12. The tulip's leaf is strap-shaped, with a waxy coating, and the leaves are alternately arranged on the stem; these fleshy blades are often bluish green in color. Most tulips produce only one flower per stem, but a few species bear multiple flowers on their scapes (e.g. Tulipa turkestanica). The generally cup or star-shaped tulip flower has three petals and three sepals, which are often termed tepals because they are nearly identical. These six tepals are often marked on the interior surface near the bases with darker colorings. Tulip flowers come in a wide variety of colors, except pure blue (several tulips with "blue" in the name have a faint violet hue).

The flowers have six distinct, basifixed stamens with filaments shorter than the tepals. Each stigma has three distinct lobes, and the ovaries are superior, with three chambers. The tulip's seed is a capsule with a leathery covering and an ellipsoid to globe shape. Each capsule contains numerous flat, disc-shaped seeds in two rows per chamber.[6] These light to dark brown seeds have very thin seed coats and endosperm that does not normally fill the entire seed.

I hope you have enjoyed this photograph and will share it with others. You can see more of my work on my homepage in the various galleries I have created. Thank you for visiting and please come back.

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April 15th, 2014

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