![Check out our instagram feed instagram](https://dunndealpublications.com/wp-content/plugins/social-media-feather/synved-social/image/social/regular/96x96/instagram.png)
![Share on Facebook Facebook](https://dunndealpublications.com/wp-content/plugins/social-media-feather/synved-social/image/social/regular/96x96/facebook.png)
![Share on Twitter twitter](https://dunndealpublications.com/wp-content/plugins/social-media-feather/synved-social/image/social/regular/96x96/twitter.png)
![Share by email mail](https://dunndealpublications.com/wp-content/plugins/social-media-feather/synved-social/image/social/regular/96x96/mail.png)
By Dr. Robert Norman, Clinical Professor, Dermatology, Nova Southeastern University
When you step out into nature, you will be surrounded by countless numbers of amazing patterns and variations. Why does so much variety exist?
I have always been fascinated by this question, whether it is the colorful patterns on a leopard’s coat or the rough, hard covering of a rhinoceros, a variation of a butterfly wing, the knotty extension on a tree, or the amazing variety of flowers and plants that surround us. Each pattern may have a purpose, and as a nature lover you should explore and seek answers.
Here are some examples.
Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) is a species of flowering plant in the family Rubiaceae that is native to eastern and southern North America.
Cephalanthus occidentalis is a deciduous shrub or small tree that averages 1–3 m (3.3–9.8 ft) in height, but can reach 6 m (20 ft). The flowers provide a fascinating and easily identifiable pattern, arranged in a dense spherical inflorescence 2–3.5 cm (0.79–1.38 in) in diameter on a short peduncle. Each flower has a fused white to pale yellow four-lobed corolla forming a long slender tube connecting to the sepals. The stigma protrudes slightly from the corolla. The fruit is a spherical cluster of achenes (nutlets).
Buttonbush is a common shrub of many wetland habitats in its range, including swamps, floodplains, mangrove, riparian zones, and moist forest understory.
Why does the flower have this pattern?
It appears as if every part of the spherical flower allows the maximum exposure to the environment and allows larval hosts and others to readily feed.
Waterfowl and other birds eat the seeds. Wood ducks utilize the plant as nest protection, and mallards eat the fruit. Insects and hummingbirds take the nectar, with bees using it to make honey. It is a larval host to the hydrangea sphinx, the royal walnut moth, and the titan sphinx.
——
What is this knotty growth on the tree?
This picture shows a gall—the wood and bark that grow over a wound in the trunk or branch of a tree, also called burl, callus, or tumor. A gall is an outgrowth of greatly modified woody tissue that appears on tree branches or stems in response to irritation by an alien organism, often bacteria, fungi, or insects. A gall ranges from spindle-shaped to globose with a rough surface, either vertically or horizontally ridged and covered with small knobs of tissue.
On large tree trunks, galls can reach a diameter two to three times that of the tree at the point of occurrence. A gall is a product of excessive division and enlargement of cells from abnormal cambial activity stimulated by bacteria or fungi and the wood is characterized by wildly contorted grain. Galls often contain small knots with pith centers, ingrown bark, and concentrations of stain.
In 2012, Kevin Smith, a plant physiologist at the US Forest Service’s Northern Research Station, noted in an article that: “The crown gall bacterium is responsible for many burls. That common bacterium is especially interesting because it carries within it a little extra DNA, called a plasmid, which infiltrates the tree’s genetics. The plasmid prompts the tree to make special amino acids and growth regulators to produce the burl, which apparently is the preferred habitat for the bacterium. The bacterium that started the process can be long gone by the time the burl is of any size.”
“Burls are occasionally associated with dormant buds, but even that does not explain why they get ‘turned on’ here and not there. Burls don’t seem to do much harm to the tree or shorten its life,” said Smith. “The xylem, twisted and contorted though it is, still seems to do its job of transporting water and nutrients. The vessels are still working and there’s still starch storage in the healthy outer parts of the burl, so it’s capable of normal function, though I’m sure that function is diminished.”
According to the website of the Florida School of Woodwork, the burl grain variation is twisted and interlocked, causing it to chip easily. This “wild grain” makes burl wood extremely dense and resistant to splitting. These properties make it valued for bowls and mallets and each one is unique in its shape, pattern, color and texture.
——-
Here I will step away from Florida momentarily to demonstrate a very particular type of pattern in nature that I discovered recently at the butterfly exhibit at the Houston Museum of Science.
Attacus atlas, the Atlas moth, is a large saturniid moth endemic to the forests of Asia. The species was described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758
The upper side of the wings is reddish brown with a pattern of black, white, pink, and purple lines. The tips of both forewings have prominent extensions that resemble the head of a snake. The resemblance is exaggerated by movements of the wings when the moth is confronted by potential predators.
—
During a recent hike at Starkey Wilderness Park, my friend Frank and I came across a whole field of sundews bordering a marshy lake.
Sundews (Drosera spp.) are small carnivorous plants found in the same bogs as pitcher plants. They thrive in moist, mucky soil and full sun. They are also carnivorous for the same reasons pitcher plants are—their wet, acidic habitats possess few soil nutrients, so they use insects instead. Five species of Drosera, the genus name for sundew, are native to Florida, with D. capillaris (seen in photo) being the most common.
Sundews utilize a different method for trapping insects—their flat, radiating structure has wider lobes on the ends, which are covered with hairlike tentacles. These hairs secrete droplets of sticky sap visible at the tip of each hair. Small insects are attracted to the dewlike sap and get stuck. The hairs curl around the insect like a slow Venus flytrap, and natural enzymes to break down the bug.
Even the famous naturalist Charles Darwin was enthralled with sundews, conducting experiments and writing volumes about them. In an 1860 letter to his geologist friend Charles Lyell, Darwin stated that, “at the present moment, I care more about Drosera than the origin of all the species in the world.”
Where can you find these wonderful patterns in nature? Get out into The Great Florida Outdoors!
Thanks to UF/IFAS
Reading the Florida Landscape is available in hardcover, paperback and on Kindle at https://www.amazon.com/Reading-Florida-Landscape-Robert-Norman-ebook/dp/B092W5BJ5C
Dr. Norman is an advanced master naturalist graduate of the FMNP program from UF and a board-certified dermatologist based in Tampa and Riverview. He can be reached at 813-880-7546.
70 books (series editor of 39) ● 300+ articles ● 150 Lectures and Blogs
45 videos and films ● 18 photo calendars and exhibits ● 4 music CDs
Tampa Bay Medical Hero Award (2008)
● Hadassah Humanitarian Award (2012)
To order books click on these links:
Trade (Popular) Books
Clinical Books
Instructional Books
Read more of Dr. Norman’s articles here. https://dunndealpublications.com/dr-robert-normans-articles/
![Check out our instagram feed instagram](https://dunndealpublications.com/wp-content/plugins/social-media-feather/synved-social/image/social/regular/96x96/instagram.png)
![Share on Facebook Facebook](https://dunndealpublications.com/wp-content/plugins/social-media-feather/synved-social/image/social/regular/96x96/facebook.png)
![Share on Twitter twitter](https://dunndealpublications.com/wp-content/plugins/social-media-feather/synved-social/image/social/regular/96x96/twitter.png)
![Share by email mail](https://dunndealpublications.com/wp-content/plugins/social-media-feather/synved-social/image/social/regular/96x96/mail.png)