Multi-Galactic Foliage: a Field Notebook
Linking the terrestrial to the cosmic: the speckled leaves of the cultivated evergreen shrub Aucuba japonica Variegata (aka Gold Dust Plant) bear an astonishing resemblance to deep-field telescopic images (See Pictures). This includes, notably, the Hubble Space Telescope's Ultra Deep Field (HUDF) photograph. That image used a ten-hour exposure over several weeks to peer far into space and found an abundance of galaxies.
The markings on the Gold Dust Plant's leaves are evocative of stars, star clusters, assorted nebulae, galaxies (spiral, elliptical and irregular), comets, even asteroids. Also, the leaf spines can look like meteor streaks or spiral galaxies viewed edge-on. Some of the leaf images even appear to mimic the phenomenon of gravitational lensing. All these effects can be particularly impressive when the leaves are viewed in black & white, as on a photocopier--where it's also possible to enhance the view with motion (which can boost nebulosity).
Native to a large swath of Asia, the characteristic Aucuba japonica "variegated with yellow spots" was described by Swedish naturalist Carl Peter Thunberg in his 1783 botany catalog following extensive journeys in the Orient. Consequently, the horticulturalists who bred this attractive ornamental plant to look that way had to predate deep-field astronomy by centuries.
See my (Steve Kearney) book--Cosmic Web--available on Kindle (including Kindle pc).
See the slide show in the next posting of this blog--Celebrity Moon Faces & Multi-Galactic Leaves for examples of the Aucuba leaves phenomenon.
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