Pages

11/06/2017

The Lotus Effect - #30DaysWild day 11


Did you know that the ancients 
believed rain or dew droplets which collected on the leaves
 of the Alchemilla mollis
were 'celestial waters'.
These droplets were gathered and used in alchemy.
I still believe there is something magical about the
reflective mercurial appearance rain droplets
that accumulate on the leaves in my garden.


Nasturtium leaves under a microscope, show to have
tiny waxy hairs and when the leaves capture a droplet water
which then rolls off - dust and dirt is removed from these hairs.
This cleansing action is known as 'The Lotus Effect'.
This, over time, has developed as an evolutionary form of survival.
Clean leaves photosynthesis far better than grubby ones.

Whatever it is in science - 
I love the wonderful reflective qualities 
of these fat little buttons of water.

#30DaysWild  - are you joining in?

2 comments:

  1. Lovely photographs but I disagree with what you have to say.....the droplets are there for the fairies to wash their faces in, I know cos my mother told me so!!! xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. I do Agree with every word in this post Hawthorn! I also like to see water droplets on hosta leaves.

    ReplyDelete

Hi there...

Thank you ever so much for stopping by today - I'm really glad that you did. If you would like to leave me a comment then I would be delighted to hear from you, any one signing as anonymous or writing anything unkind, political, any form of hate or computer generated will be acknowledged as spam and deleted.

Hawthorn x

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.