Frapto Photo for Today by Leo Mui

Traditional Chinese medicine is rooted in a thousand years of research into the medicinal effect of plant and animal products.  Traditional Chinese medicine apothecaries still dispense dried herbs, dried animal parts, and bark from these wooden drawers.  A doctor writes a “prescription” and the dispenser weighs out each ingredient into a paper bag for the patient to take home.  The dry ingredients are thrown in a large volume of water which is boiled off slowly to extract all the essences.

A large number of scientists today try to analyze the chemcial components of these traditional medicines to determine the structure of the active molecule(s) to try to understand their mechanism of action.  Organic chemists may then try to synthesize the active substance in a pure form to be placed in  pills for easy dosing and administration.

Frapto Photo for Today by Mayra Sanchez

Rainy Saturday in Milwaukee, bummed after taking many bad pictures the night before, not wanting to use my camera. Couldn’t help myself and brought the point-and-shoot camera while looking  at the flowers in the yard.  That is where I found these beauties once again.

Frapto Photo for Today by JD Thomas

I took my camera to the office today and left the battery at home.  So when I got home I had to go find something in the dark.  This is a dandelion on the front lawn – with Flash obviously.

Frapto Photo for Today by Leo Mui

One of the Canadian Cancer Society’s most recognized symbol is the yellow daffodil on their logo.  Every year, they sell daffodils in April as a fundraiser.  This building features a beautiful daffodil garden; I hope they bought them from the fundraiser!

Frapto Photo for Today by Mayra Sanchez

These showed up in my yard yesterday, but today they were in bloom. I had taken an earlier shot of tulips this morning, but this one was a lot more interesting. Their real name: Mertensia virginica.

I definitely have learned a lot about flowers this week!

Frapto Photo for Today by Mayra Sanchez

Thanks to Bonnie, a librarian friend from Steven Point, who was able to identify these purple flowers so I could post the photo here. They are grape hyacinths, and are not really hyacinths but lilies. Their Latin name is Muscari armeniacum.

Frapto Photo for Today by Mayra Sanchez

It looks like Japonica but it might not be. Okay, experts, help me identify!!!

Frapto Photo for Today by Leo Mui

I saw this lone purple flower beside the sidewalk today.  Can anyone identify it?

Frapto Photo for Today by Mayra Sanchez

And I have no idea what they are. They almost escaped my eye since they are so tiny. But I am glad I was able to place their memory here.

Frapto Photo for Today by Stacy Moll

While driving I saw this bush with these beautiful flowers.

Frapto Photo for Today by Mayra Sanchez

I had to go on someone’s lawn to photograph this blooming tree. Right now I have no idea what it is.

Frapto Photo for Today by Stacy Moll

While my one daughter was at therapy I decided to talk a walk around the area and found myself under this beautiful tree full of flowers.

Frapto Photo for Today by Mayra Sanchez

About ten adults and countless children asked me today what was I doing while I took photos of the hyacinths in front of our school.  Are you planting, Ms. Mayra? What in the world are you doing? Are you hiding? Did you lose something? Watch the flowers!

The same answer lots of times and many pictures after, I had what I wanted. Here it is.

Frapto Photo for Today by Leo Mui

The most common  of the many allotropes* of sulfur is α-cyclooctasulfur, whose structure resembles a crown of 8 sulfur atoms joined  together in a puckered ring.  This type of pure elemental sulfur, especially if it is purified by sublimation†, is also known as sulfur flowers.

Interestingly, the common name for the buckwheat species Eriogonum umbellatum is “sulfur flower”.

* Different forms of a pure element; eg. graphite and diamond are allotropes of carbon)

† Transformation directly from gas to solid, or solid to gas, without going through a liquid phase (eg. frost forming on a cold window from water vapour in the air)

Frapto Photo for Today by Stacy Moll

Driving home I saw these flowers.

Frapto Photo for Today by Mayra Sanchez

These beauties growing in our yard greeted me as I came back home from vacation. When considering the title of the post, I couldn’t decide on the word to use. Jonquil? Daffodil? Narcissus?  I had first heard the word jonquil when our neighbors in Arkansas would use this term for the pretty yellow flowers that first came out in the spring. Eventually I heard some people call them daffodils, then later I heard narcissus. So which is which? According to Tyla Mac, in her blog All About Daffodils, “a narcissus and a daffodil are the same. Jonquils (narcissus jonquilla) are daffodils,too but not all daffodils are jonquils.”

As far as the beauties in the photo, the term daffodils is as far as I can go.

Frapto Photo for Today by Stacy Moll

The place where Margaret rides works very hard to make it look nice.  These were some of the flowers that are blooming now.

Frapto Photo for Today by Jen Walker

At the Woodlands Cemetery. So old that it’s a National Historic Landmark. I like to document the seasonal changes in the local cemeteries and I hadn’t done Spring yet.

Frapto Photo for Today by Stacy Moll

I love how everything is so new right now.

Frapto Photo for Today by Mayra Sanchez

Or hibiscus, as they are known in the States, can be found anywhere in Puerto Rico, and be seen in different colors and sizes. As children, my cousins and I used to pretend the buds were cigarettes and act like we were smoking.

Frapto Photo for Today by Jen Walker

I live in a very ethnically diverse neighborhood. Italian, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Mexican, White, etc. I hope I can find time to photograph some of the neat signs in the area for you guys for our theme.

Frapto Photo for Today by Leo Mui

Last fall I had to dig up a section of our lawn because it was just infested with weeds (we don’t use herbicides).  I re-seeded it in late September or early October… looks like I need to fill in some bald spots next weekend!

…Or, should I just dig up the grass and make it a vegetable garden?  Does it take a lot of work/time?  Is it  cheating to count this as a flower pic?

Frapto Photo for Today by Stacy Moll

I think that sometimes the flowers you find growing in the wild are more beautiful than all the others.

Frapto Photo for Today by Mayra Sanchez

My uncle asked me (me?) what kind of flower this was… all I could say is: a pretty one! I have no idea, yet the librarian in me couldn’t resist. It’s called heliconia, and this one in particular looks like a heliconia lobster claw. I found it here: heliconia , but I could be wrong in the specific kind of heliconia.

Frapto Photo for Today by David Sanchez

I took this opportunity to snatch a shot of a dew drop on a tulip leaf in the garden.

Frapto Photo for Today by Mayra Sanchez

I was “forced” to buy 3 of these for the photo. Shared one, ate two!

Frapto Photo for Today by Mayra Sanchez

A great place to have a cup of coffee in Milwaukee is Alterra.

Frapto Photo for Today by David Sanchez

I didn’t capture anything special today, so I quickly decided to take a shot of the Mars Plastic Eraser

Frapto Photo for Today by Mayra Sanchez

Easy shot!