Tree with the fern
Fractal created by Jenny
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Fern
Fractal created by  Jenny
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My Incendia's Fern
Fractal created by Krys
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Fern
Fractal created by Jenny
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Black Fern
Fractal created by Jenny
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Fern. Fractal created by Alida. She used Fractal Explorer

Fern
Photo taken by Jenny

Winter Rose
Fractal created by Louise
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Peace Rose
Fractal created by Louise
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Rose Boquet
Fractal
Created by Lynn
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Morning Dew
Fractal created by Louise
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Roses for L.
Fractal
Created by Krys
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Roses
Fractal created by Alida
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Frejasvejs Rose
Photo taken by Lynn

• The name Rose comes from French

• ....a rose by any other name would smell as sweet - (Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare)...  meaning it only matters what something is and not what it is called. 

• Roses were first cultivated in ancient Babylonia and Assyria for their beauty, perfume, their oil and later medicinal use. These ancestral roses were the forerunners of the groups Gallica, Damask, Alba, Centifolia and Moss. 

• Wonderful and evocative names for these much loved flowers in gardens across the world..

• Antoine de Saint Exupery says about Rose: "You're beautiful, but you're empty...One couldn't die for you. Of course, an ordinary passerby would think my rose looked just like you. But my rose, all on her own, is more important than all of you together, since she's the one I've watered. Since she's the one I put under glass, since she's the one I sheltered behind the screen. Since she's the one for whom I killed the caterpillars (except the two or three butterflies). Since she's the one I listened to when she complained, or when she boasted, or even sometimes when she said nothing at all. Since she's my rose.” 

Alexander Red Rose
Photo taken by Jenny

There are so different fractal mushrooms....

Fractal created by Lynn
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Fractal created by Jenny
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Fractal created by Jenny
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Fractal created by Jenny
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Name "mushroom" is the cultivated white button mushroom, Agaricus bisporus; hence the word "mushroom" is most often applied to those fungi (Basidiomycota, Agaricomycetes) that have a stem (stipe), a cap (pileus), and gills (lamellae, sing. lamella) on the underside of the cap. "Mushroom" also describes a variety of other gilled fungi, with or without stems, therefore the term is used to describe the fleshy fruiting bodies of some Ascomycota. These gills produce microscopic spores that help the fungus spread across the ground or its occupant surface

• Mushrooms are used extensively in cooking, in many cuisines (notably Chinese, Korean, European, and Japanese). Though neither meat nor vegetable, mushrooms are known as the "meat" of the vegetable world.

• Most mushrooms sold in supermarkets have been commercially grown on mushroom farms. The most popular of these, Agaricus bisporus, is considered safe for most people to eat because it is grown in controlled, sterilized environments. Several varieties of A. bisporus are grown commercially, including whites, crimini, and portobello. Other cultivated species available at many grocers include Hericium erinaceus, shiitake, maitake (hen-of-the-woods), Pleurotus, and enoki. In recent years, increasing affluence in developing countries has led to a considerable growth in interest in mushroom cultivation, which is now seen as a potentially important economic activity for small farmers

• Many mushroom species produce secondary metabolites that can be toxic, mind-altering, antibiotic, antiviral, or bioluminescent. Although there are only a small number of deadly species, several others can cause particularly severe and unpleasant symptoms. Toxicity likely plays a role in protecting the function of the basidiocarp: the mycelium has expended considerable energy and protoplasmic material to develop a structure to efficiently distribute its spores. One defense against consumption and premature destruction is the evolution of chemicals that render the mushroom inedible, either causing the consumer to vomit the meal (see emetics), or to learn to avoid consumption altogether. In addition, due to the propensity of mushrooms to absorb heavy metals, including those that are radioactive, European mushrooms may, as late as 2008, include toxicity from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

Wild Flowers
Fractal created by Krys
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Wild Flowers
Fractal created by Krys
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Bush of flowers
Fractal created by Krys
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    Wild flower is a flower that grows in the wild. Wildflowers aren't naturally planted by nature or by humans, but grow in the wild. 
Wildflowers are native and exotic species. Some species of wildflowers are endangered.
There are so many different wild flowers everywhere we go..

..

Fauna and flora
Fractal created by Jenny
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    Wild flower is a flower that grows in the wild. Wildflowers aren't naturally planted by nature or by humans, but grow in the wild. 
Wildflowers are native and exotic species. Some species of wildflowers are endangered.
There are so many different wild flowers everywhere we go...

.

Wild Flowers
western Australia
By Raygday - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, 
httpscommons.wikimedia.

Picly  pea
fractal created by Louise
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Pea
Fractal
Created by Jenny
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Pea
Fractal
Created by Jenny
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• Peas have vitamin A, vitamin B6, vitamin C, vitamin K, phosphorus, magnesium, copper, iron, zinc and lutein. 

• Modern culinary use: Peas  are  usually boiled or steamed (Middle East, North Africa, Europe-Middle Ages). Green Peas  became very popular in France (XVII, XVIII). 

• G.Mendel  observed pea pods. These observations  led to principles of Mendelian   Genetics.

• The annual 'Peasenhall Pea Festival' in the English village of Peasenhall, Suffolk.

Picly  peas
Photo

Datura

Fractal created by Louise

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Datura stramonium

Fractal created by Alida

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Datura

Fraqctal created by Jenny

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Datura is a beautiful flower (known as Angel's trumpet or Devil's trumpet in an other place. Sometimes datura is called a moonflower) which lures people's eyes. Good to know in the moment that datura contains big amounts of atropine, acoplamine, hyoscylamine.These chemical compounbs are psychoactive and they cause hallucinations.

Sacred plant 

• Datura is a sacred plant in India. 

• Buddism and some Indians from Latin America are interested in datura too. 

• All species of Datura are poisonous, especially their seeds and flowers

Heather
Fractal created by Jenny
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Heather
Fractal created by Krys
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Calluna vulgaris
Fractal created by Jenny
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Calluna vulgaris is common known as heather. It's a low growing pennial shrub (20 - 50 centimeters) in Europe and Asia, in open, sunny places and in the shade. 

Heather
Photo taken by Jenny

• Meaning. Heather represents beaty, admiration, good luck
• Celtic meaning: Druids and ancien Celts were superb botanists. The heather was for them a great cleansing agengt breaking up blockages found in the body. The heather means also: luck, purity, beauty. 
• White heather is a taken of good luck, protection from danger

White haether
Photo taken by Jenny

Blue Eyed Grass
Fractal created byAlida
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Blue Eyed Grass
Fractal created by unknown creator from the group
No one has a frs file of the fractal
Used probably Fractal Explorer

Sisyrinchium is a large genus of annual to perennial flowering plant in the family Iridaceae. Native to the New World, the species are known as blue-eyed grasses and, though not true grasses and in varieties with flower colors other than blue, are monocots.

These are not true grasses, but many species have the general appearance of grasses, as they are low-growing plants with long, thin leaves. They often grow on grasslands. Many species resemble irises, to which they are more closely related. Most species grow as perennial plants, from a rhizome, though some are short-lived (e.g. S. striatum), and some are annuals (e.g. S. iridifolium).
The flowers are relatively simple and often grow in clusters.
Many species, particularly the South American ones, are not blue, despite the common name. The genus includes species with blue, white, yellow, and purple petals, often with a contrasting centre. Of the species in the United States, the Western Blue-eyed Grass, Sisyrinchium bellum, is sometimes found with white flowers, while the California Golden-eyed Grass, Sisyrinchium californicum, has yellow flowers.

It is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech-oak family Fagaceae. The genus Betula contains 30 to 60 known taxa of which 11 are on the IUCN 2011 Red List of Threatened Species. They are a typically rather short-lived pioneer species widespread in the Northern Hemisphere, particularly in northern areas of temperate climates and in boreal climates.

Silverwood. Fractal created by Jenny.

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Birch species are generally small to medium-sized trees or shrubs, mostly of northern temperate and boreal climates. The simple leaves are alternate, singly or doubly serrate, feather-veined, petiolate and stipulate. They often appear in pairs, but these pairs are really borne on spur-like, two-leaved, lateral branchlets. The fruit is a small samara, although the wings may be obscure in some species. They differ from the alders (Alnus, other genus in the family) in that the female catkins are not woody and disintegrate at maturity, falling apart to release the seeds, unlike the woody, cone-like female alder catkins.

Silvertime. Fractal created by Jenny.

She used Fractal Explorer. 

The bark of all birches is characteristically marked with long, horizontal lenticels, and often separates into thin, papery plates, especially upon the paper birch. Distinctive colors give the common names gray, white, black, silver and yellow birch to different species.

The buds, forming early and full-grown by midsummer, are all lateral, without a terminal bud forming; the branch is prolonged by the upper lateral bud. The wood of all the species is close-grained with a satiny texture and capable of taking a fine polish; its fuel value is fair.

Flower and fruit

The flowers are monoecious, opening with or before the leaves. Once fully grown, these leaves are usually 3–6 millimetres long on three-flowered clusters in the axils of the scales of drooping or erect catkins or aments. Staminate catkins are pendulous, clustered, or solitary in the axils of the last leaves of the branch of the year or near the ends of the short lateral branchlets of the year. They form in early autumn and remain rigid during the winter. The scales of the mature staminate catkins are broadly ovate, rounded, yellow or orange color below the middle, and dark chestnut brown at apex. Each scale bears two bractlets and three sterile flowers, each flower consisting of a sessile, membranous, usually two-lobed, calyx. Each calyx bears four short filaments with one-celled anthers or strictly, two filaments divided into two branches, each bearing a half-anther. Anther cells open longitudinally. The pistillate segments are erect or pendulous, and solitary, terminal on the two-leaved lateral spur-like branchlets of the year. The pistillate scales are oblong-ovate, three-lobed, pale yellow-green often tinged with red, becoming brown at maturity. These scales bear two or three fertile flowers, each flower consisting of a naked ovary. The ovary is compressed, two-celled, and crowned with two slender styles; the ovule is solitary. Each scale bears a single small, winged nut that is oval, with two persistent

Medical

Approved topical medicine

In the European Union, a prescription gel containing birch bark extract (commercial name Episalvan, betulae cortex dry extract (5-10 : 1); extraction solvent: n-heptane 95% (w/w)) was approved in 2016 for the topical treatment of minor skin wounds in adults. Although its mechanism of action in helping to heal injured skin is not fully understood, birch bark extract appears to stimulate the growth of keratinocytes which then fill the wound.

Research and traditional medicine

Preliminary research indicates that the phytochemicals, betulin and possibly other triterpenes, are active in Episalvan gel and wound healing properties of birch bark.

Over centuries, birch bark was used in traditional medicine practices by North American indigenous people for treating superficial wounds by applying bark directly to the skin. Splints made with birch bark were used as casts for broken limbs in the 16th century.

Photo taken by Jacek.

Garlik
Fractal created by Jenny
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 Allium is a genus of monocotyledonous flowering plants. There are many species of Allium. They occur in temperate climates of the Northern Hemisphere. Allium genus produce chemical compounds (mostly derived from cysteine sulfoxides) that give them a characteristic (alliaceous) onion or garlic taste and odor. The plant includes:

Red onion
Fractal created by Alida
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• onion - known as the bulb onion or common onion.

• The onion plant has bluish-green leaves and its bulb at the base of the plant begins to swell  (autumn or in spring) the foliage dies down and the outer layers of the bulb become dry and brittle. The crop is harvested and dried and the onions are ready for use or storage. 

• History: The geographic origin of the onion is uncertain. Food uses of onions date back thousands of years in China, Egypt and Persia.

• Culinary uses: Onion can be baked, boiled, braised, grilled, fried, roasted, sautéed, or eaten raw in salads. 

• Non-culinary uses:Onions have particularly large cells that are readily observed. Onion's cell is easy to separate for educational, experimental, and breeding purposes.

• Freshly cut onions often cause a stinging sensation in the eyes of people nearby, and often uncontrollable tears. This is caused by the release of a volatile gas, which stimulates nerves in the eye creating a stinging sensation. This gas is produced by a chain of reactions which serve as a defense mechanism.

Allium cepa
Photo taken by Jenny

• Garlic is a very interesting, edible plant knon on all the world. People love and hate it at the same time. They love eating garlic because it makes food's flavor richer, but the garlic and the others plants of Allium genus produce chemical compounds which give a characteristic odor (it is not enjoyable at all).  the most interesting feature of the garlic is that it brings most of the health benefits. It is a natural antibiotic which fight against bacterias in people's body:). It also has very few calories but it contains everything what we need to have: Manganese, Vitamin B6, Vitamin C, Selenium, Fiber and decent amounts of Calcium, Copper, Potassium, Phosphorus, Iron and Vitamin B1. The best way to consume garlic is raw, or to crush and cut it and leave it out for a while before you add it to your recipes.

• scallion (also known as spring onions or green onions) are vegetables derived from various species in the genus Allium. Scallions generally have a milder taste than most onions and their close relatives include garlic, shallot, leek, chive, and Chinese onions.

Although the bulbs of many Allium species are used as food, the defining characteristic of scallion species is that they lack a fully developed bulb. Instead the Allium species referred to as scallions make use of the hollow, tubular green leaves growing directly from the bulb. These leaves are used as a vegetable and can be eaten either raw or cooked. Often the leaves are chopped into other dishes and used as garnishes.

• shallot The shallot is a type of onion. It probably came from Central or Southwest Asia and was travelling from there to India and the eastern Mediterranean. The name "shallot" comes from Ashkelon, an ancient Canaanite city, where people in classical Greek times believed shallots originated. The skin colour of shallots can vary from golden brown to gray to rose red, and their off-white flesh is usually tinged with green or magenta.

Red onion cut
Photo taken by Jenny

• leek The leek was a part of the Egyptian diet from at least the second millennium BCE onwards. They also allude to surviving texts that show it had been also grown in MesopotamiA   from the beginning of the second millennium BCE.

• chives

History: First  Linnaeus described Allium (1753). There were 30 species in his classification.  Later (2009) classification showed 800 species. 

Ornament: Many Allium species are cultivated as ornamental flowers. The hybrids of Allium "Bea Regard", "Gladiator", "Globemaster" have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

Toxicity: Dogs and cats may be poisoned after eating the plant. 

Uses: Important economical species: onions, French shallots, leeks, scallions, garlic, chives.