Royalty-free images by Mike¹ — No. 87 of over 1200 images

Hollyhock, Mountain Farm Museum, Great Smokey Mountains National Park, near Cherokee, North Carolina, June 15, 2012

Hollyhocks (Alcea)²

Alcea is a genus of about 60 species of flowering plants in the mallow family Malvaceae, commonly known as the hollyhocks. They are native to Asia and Europe. The single species of hollyhock from the Americas, the streambank wild hollyhock, belongs to a different genus.

Hollyhocks are annual, biennial, or perennial plants usually taking an erect, unbranched form. The herbage usually has a coating of star-shaped hairs. The leaf blades are often lobed or toothed, and are borne on long petioles. The flowers may be solitary or arranged in fascicles or racemes. The notched petals are usually over three centimeters wide and may be pink, white, purple, or yellow. The fruit is a schizocarp, a dry disc divided into over 15 sections that contain seeds

1. I am sharing some of my public domain images in periodic blog posts.
2. Wikipedia

Notes:

• This image is also shared as public domain on Pixabay and Flickr.
• Images are being shared in the sequence they were accepted by Pixabay, a royalty-free image sharing site.
• Only images specifically identified as such are public domain or creative commons on our pages.
• All other images are copyright protected by me, creative commons, or used under the provisions of fair use.

Royalty-free images by Mike¹ — No. 86 of over 1200 images

Painted Desert Inn Viga, Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona, October 9, 2011

Viga²

Vigas are wooden beams used in the traditional adobe architecture of the American Southwest, especially New Mexico. In this type of construction, the vigas are the main structural members carrying the weight of the roof to the load-bearing exterior walls. The exposed beam ends projecting from the outside of the wall are a defining characteristic of Pueblo architecture and Spanish Colonial architecture in New Mexico and often replicated in modern Pueblo Revival architecture. Usually the vigas are simply peeled logs with a minimum of woodworking. In traditional buildings, the vigas support latillas (laths) which are placed crosswise and upon which the adobe roof is laid, often with intermediate layers of brush or soil. The latillas may be hewn boards, or in more rustic buildings, simply peeled branches. These building techniques date back to the Ancestral Puebloan peoples, and vigas (or holes left where the vigas have deteriorated) are visible in many of their surviving buildings.

Since the modern Pueblo Revival style was popularized in the 1920s and 1930s, vigas are typically used for ornamental rather than structural purposes. Noted architect John Gaw Meem incorporated ornamental vigas into many of his designs. Contemporary construction in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which is controlled by stringent building codes, typically incorporates ornamental vigas, although the latest revision of the residential building code gives credit for structural vigas. Older structures that have been reconstructed (e.g. the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe) may contain both structural and ornamental vigas.

1. I am sharing some of my public domain images in periodic blog posts.
2. Wikipedia

Notes:

• This image is also shared as public domain on Pixabay and Flickr.
• Images are being shared in the sequence they were accepted by Pixabay, a royalty-free image sharing site.
• Only images specifically identified as such are public domain or creative commons on our pages.
• All other images are copyright protected by me, creative commons, or used under the provisions of fair use.

Royalty-free images by Mike¹ — No. 85 of over 1200 images

Barbed wire, between Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument and Wupatki National Monument, north-central Arizona, near Flagstaff, October 6, 2011

Barbed wire (Wikipedia)

Barbed wire, also known as barb wire, occasionally corrupted as bobbed wire or bob wire, is a type of steel fencing wire constructed with sharp edges or points arranged at intervals along the strands. It is used to construct inexpensive fences and is used atop walls surrounding secured property. It is also a major feature of the fortifications in trench warfare (as a wire obstacle).

A person or animal trying to pass through or over barbed wire will suffer discomfort and possibly injury (this is especially true if the fence is also electric). Barbed wire fencing requires only fence posts, wire, and fixing devices such as staples. It is simple to construct and quick to erect, even by an unskilled person.

The first patent in the United States for barbed wire was issued in 1867 to Lucien B. Smith of Kent, Ohio, who is regarded as the inventor. Joseph F. Glidden of DeKalb, Illinois, received a patent for the modern invention in 1874 after he made his own modifications to previous versions.

Barbed wire was the first wire technology capable of restraining cattle. Wire fences were cheaper and easier to erect than their alternatives. (One such alternative was Osage orange, a thorny bush that was time-consuming to transplant and grow.) When wire fences became widely available in the United States in the late 19th century, it became more affordable to fence much larger areas than before, and intensive animal husbandry was made practical on a much larger scale.

An example of the costs of fencing with lumber immediately prior to the invention of barbed wire can be found with the first farmers in the Fresno, California, area, who spent nearly $4,000 (equivalent to $85,000 in 2019) to have wood for fencing delivered and erected to protect 2,500 acres (1,000 ha) of wheat crop from free-ranging livestock in 1872.

1. I am sharing some of my public domain images in periodic blog posts.

• • This image is also shared as public domain on Pixabay and Flickr.
  • Images are being shared in the sequence they were accepted by Pixabay, a royalty-free image sharing site.
  • Only images specifically identified as such are public domain or creative commons on our pages.
  • All other images are copyright protected by me, creative commons, or used under the provisions of fair use.

Royalty-free images by Mike¹ — No. 84 of over 1200 images

Thai Garden Elephant, Olbrich Botanical Gardens, Madison, Wisconsin, September 20, 2012

Olbrich Botanical Gardens:

The Thai Garden surrounding the Pavilion emulates a lush, tropical garden with Wisconsin-hardy plants. Ornamental grasses, some reaching up to 12 feet tall, and several hardy bamboos are essential in creating a tropical look. Large-leafed shrubs and trees are pruned to give them the look of plants in a typical Thai garden.

Glazed water jars and clipped tree art called mai dat, are both common elements of Thai gardens. Mai dat is a traditional horticulture feature in Thai gardens that has been practiced since the 13th century. Olbrich uses large Chinese junipers for the clipped tree art.

1. I am sharing some of my public domain images in periodic blog posts.

• This image is also shared as public domain on Pixabay and Flickr as “Thai Garden Elephant.”
• Images are being shared in the sequence they were accepted by Pixabay, a royalty-free image sharing site.
• Only images specifically identified as such are public domain or creative commons on our pages.
• All other images are copyright protected by me, creative commons, or used under the provisions of fair use.

2. Olbrich Botanical Gardens website
3. Wikipedia

Royalty-free images by Mike¹ — No. 83 of over 1200 images

Wild Geranium, Shenandoah National Park, Virginia May 12, 2009

Wikipedia:

Geranium maculatum, the wild geranium, spotted geranium, or wood geranium, is a perennial plant native to woodland in eastern North America, from southern Manitoba and southwestern Quebec south to Alabama and Georgia and west to Oklahoma and South Dakota. It grows in dry to moist woods and is normally abundant when found.

The plant has been used in herbal medicine, and is also grown as a garden plant. Wild geranium is considered an astringent, a substance that causes contraction of the tissues and stops bleeding. The Mesquakie Indians brewed a root tea for toothache and for painful nerves and mashed the roots for treating hemorrhoids.

I am sharing some of my public domain images in periodic blog posts.

• This image is also shared as public domain on Pixabay and Flickr as “Wild Geranium.”
• Images are being shared in the sequence they were accepted by Pixabay, a royalty-free image sharing site.
• Only images specifically identified as such are public domain or creative commons on our pages.
• All other images are copyright protected by me, creative commons, or used under the provisions of fair use.

Royalty-free images by Mike¹ — No. 82 of over 1200 images

Dandelion Parachute Ball, Shenandoah National Park, Virginia, May 12, 2009

Wikipedia

Taraxacum (/təˈræksəkʊm/) is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, which consists of species commonly known as dandelions. The genus is native to Eurasia and North America. The common name dandelion (from French dent-de-lion, meaning “lion’s tooth”) is given to members of the genus. Like other members of the family Asteraceae, they have very small flowers collected together into a composite flower head. Each single flower in a head is called a floret. In part due to their abundance along with being a generalist species, dandelions are one of the most vital early spring nectar sources for a wide host of pollinators. Many Taraxacum species produce seeds asexually by apomixis, where the seeds are produced without pollination, resulting in offspring that are genetically identical to the parent plant.

The flower heads mature into spherical seed heads sometimes called blowballs or clocks (in both British and American English) containing many single-seeded fruits called achenes. Each achene is attached to a pappus of fine hair-like material which enables wind-aided dispersal over long distances.

A number of species of Taraxacum are seed-dispersed ruderals that rapidly colonize disturbed soil, especially the common dandelion (T. officinale), which has been introduced over much of the temperate world. After flowering is finished, the dandelion flower head dries out for a day or two. The dried petals and stamens drop off, the bracts reflex (curve backwards), and the parachute ball opens into a full sphere. When development is complete, the mature seeds are attached to white, fluffy “parachutes” which easily detach from the seedhead and glide by wind, dispersing.

The seeds are able to cover large distances when dispersed due to the unique morphology of the pappus which works to create a unique type of vortex ring that stays attached to the seed rather than being sent downstream. In addition to the creation of this vortex ring, the pappus can adjust its morphology depending on the moisture in the air. This allows the plume of seeds to close up and reduce the chance to separate from the stem, waiting for optimal conditions that will maximize dispersal and germination.

I am sharing some of my public domain images in periodic blog posts.

• This image is also shared as public domain on Pixabay and Flickr as “Winter in the Ozarks.”
• Images are being shared in the sequence they were accepted by Pixabay, a royalty-free image sharing site.
• Only images specifically identified as such are public domain or creative commons on our pages.
• All other images are copyright protected by me, creative commons, or used under the provisions of fair use.

Halloween 2020 #11

Halloween 2020 #10

Halloween 2020 #9

Vintage Halloween Postcards from the digital collections of the New York Public Library

Repository: The New York Public Library. Mid-Manhattan Library. Picture Collection.