“A capacity, and taste, for reading, gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others. It is the key, or one of the keys, to the already solved problems. And not only so. It gives a relish, and facility, for successfully pursuing the [yet] unsolved ones.”
― Abraham Lincoln

This one is a new plant for me. While hiking on Sunday, I caught a brief flash of burgundy a short distance off the trail, from the corner of my eye. As I looked from a distance, I could not make out what I was looking at. So, I decided to step off the trail to investigate.

My first step into the trail put me ankle-deep in water, which I was not aware of. I then proceeded carefully, stepping from log to log, approaching this cluster of unknown plants. It’s yet another of those, “How did I not notice theses before?”, moments. How did I not notice that the trail was also paralleled by water, beneath the undergrowth? Perhaps it has to do with the exceptional amount of rainfall we’ve had over the past several weeks. Perhaps, this water-loving plant only grows in particularly wet years?

Setting up my tripod enabled me to make several images of this wonderful and mysterious plant, though I was still challenged to get a good, sharp image, by an ever-present breeze, even at a fairly high ISO.

On my return home, I followed my routine of reviewing the images and trying to identify the plants. I could not find it at first, but after flipping through a few books and internet resources, I finally identified it as Water Avens, which now makes perfect sense to me, given that it was growing in water!

Nikon D800
Tamron SP AF 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro 1:1 (272ENII)@90mm
1/20 sec, f/10.0 ISO 800

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