The earth is full of mysterious flora and fauna. And some mysteries are harder to solve than others. There were some nice guesses for this month’s mystery macro, but no winners. A common opinion was that the photo looked like an underwater sea creature. To be honest, if I hadn’t known, that would have been my guess. But it is not fauna. (And for the record, Bolivia is landlocked with no ocean coast.) The guesses then shifted to flower petals. That’s closer since it is flora; but it is not a flower. Here I present the entire photo from which the mystery macro was taken:
For size perspective, that is the tip of my thumb on the left of the picture. So, what is it? Here’s the flip side of the same object:
It is a natural package of seeds, designed to break apart and be dispersed by the wind. Think along the lines of the seeds of dandelions and cattails. It came from inside of this:
This is the gourd-like fruit that grows on a climbing vine all over Tarija. I commonly see them climbing up the diagonal wires that anchor telephone poles. But this one was at ground level allowing me to get a closer shot, although I had to reach through a fence to take the pictures. And it was the first chance to see what was inside of them.
But what exactly is this plant? I’ll be frank. I don’t know what kind of vine this is. Like I said, some mysteries are harder to solve than others and this month’s mystery macro is one of them. I’ve searched the internet, and asked the locals and have come up with nothing! I posted the mystery thinking that surely by now I would have found out. But this month’s macro mystery remains a mystery. It is the “anonymous” climbing vine. What about you? Do you have any ideas? If so, please post a comment below with what you think it could be. We would appreciate the help!
weird! cool!
ReplyDeleteMaybe that's the scientific name! Coolus weirdum.
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