LET'S TAKE A LOOK UNDER THE SHRUBS AND TREES

I spent plenty of hours in the last few weeks, sniffing around the forest, searching for interesting stuff under the trees and shrubs there ...

... and now, with folders stuffed with pictures, is time to start making posts out of that material. Today's walk through the woods starts with a plant ...

... and it's a kind of mysterious plant ... for me at least :) ...

... I mean, I spent some frustrating hours trying to find its name or anything about it on the Internet ... with no result ... and I don't remember encountering a plant like this before.

On this photograph, you can see the portrait of an anonymous asparagus shoot ...

... wrapped around the developed old plant like some snake ...

... these soft, tasty shoots are a great seasonal food, so after taking some photographs I picked it for lunch. The shoots are bitter, but in a fabulous, very aromatic way, nothing else tastes exactly like the wild asparagus as far as I know, it's a unique aroma ... and I adore this plant. The asparagus on these photographs was found under the deciduous trees, elms and oaks, in a habitat with not many other Asparagus plants ... while the portrait on the following shot ...

... was taken near the sea ...

... in the shade of a big, old and very contorted pine tree. This is a habitat with plenty of asparagus.

Attached to this older shoot that started developing branches and already looks a bit like the complete, developed plant ... I found an interesting green creeper ...

... these are the elegant tendrils of the Bryonia alba plant.

All parts of this plant contain bryonin, a bitter, very poisonous substance that can be lethal, so there was nothing for lunch here ...

... but these tendrils ...

... were a joy to photograph.

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On another climbing plant, the Ivy ... I found this small green spider. Here you can see it in its most usual pose, on the web built on the leaf, parallel with the leaf ... on the following shot ...

... another spider of the same kind is crouched on the petiole of the leaf.

Araniella cucurbitina is the name of this species.

It's a pretty common spider in this area, but I rarely notice it because it's small and usually, well hidden and camouflaged in the lush green vegetation.

With this photograph I'm in the deciduous forest again ... down on the floor ... some young plant has recently surfaced from the seed covered by rotten foliage from the surrounding trees ...

... and under those leaves I found also this minuscule weevil ...

I can't tell you the exact species ... never noticed this very small weevil before.

When I sat on the ground and remove some fallen leaves to photograph the young plant, I noticed these minuscule insects. Here the weevil is on my hand ...

... I put it there because it was a good place for a portrait ... on the brown leaves the insect is well camouflaged and less visible.

A bit further I photographed this small, almost opened, Stellaria neglecta flower ...

... and the Wood white butterfly (Leptidea sinapis) ...

... that was collecting nutrients and minerals from the moist soil. Although the ambient light was subtle and beautiful making the butterfly's wings translucent ...

... I took also another shot with the flash ... here you can see the same butterfly in a different light ... and maybe notice some more details of its anatomy.

Corydalis cava is a plant that I encounter only in the deciduous woods ...

... in humid, shady places under big old trees.

I like this plant's interestingly shaped flowers very much ...

... on this shot you can see another colorful flower, blurred in the background ...

... the Cyclamen purpurascens ... they appear in big numbers here in spring.

Here I used only the natural light ... and on the following shot ...

... you can see a friend that was also photographing around that day.

This Arctia villica caterpillar was feeding nearby ...

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... chewing some green fragment stretched across the fallen leaf ...

... these caterpillars feed on various herbaceous plants such as dandelion, dock and plantain.

This thing that resembles some kind of caterpillar, fell from above ... from some tree, I guess ... but I don't know which tree exactly ... I was very busy taking photographs, so I forgot to check if there’s still some of this stuff growing on the branches.

Tiny pieces of these structures were scattered all around ...

... this fragment ended up on some small leaf ... creating an elegant visual composition.

When I removed a layer of dead foliage not far from there ...

... I found a minuscule seed container split in halves ... I don't know which plant has produced this.

This Syrphid fly, the Platycheirus occultus ... stopped for a moment on the laurel shrub.

Here you can see another fly from the Syrphidae family, photographed on the same plant, the aromatic Laurus nobilis, but here I don't know which species exactly.

While rambling around the coastal area covered with Tree Heather (Erica arborea) plant that grows as a shrub or a small tree ...

... I found some Violets (Viola odorata) on the small clearing surrounded by dense growth of those shrubs ...

... these few plants with lovely fragrant flowers ...

... looked like an interesting little island.

Here is an up close portrait of the Viola odorata flower ... and on the following shot ...

... you can take a look at the small flowers of the Erica arborea.

And that's all ... hope you enjoyed this, mostly botanical, walk through the nature in my area, Istra peninsula in northern Adriatic ... have good day ... or night ... wherever on the planet you are - THE END.