I have previously featured water lilies and lotuses that I photographed during a trip earlier in July to Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens. Those flowers were beautiful, of course, but the flower that really grabbed my attention was this alien-looking one that looks like a spider or a Portuguese man o’ war. From what I have been able to find on the internet, I believe that this is a Cahaba lily (Hymenocallis coronaria), an aquatic, perennial flowering plant species that is also known as a shoal lily, or shoals spider-lily.
I was quite a challenge to try to figure out how to photograph this wild-looking flower that spreads out in all directions. I think that this angle gives you a pretty good look at all of the plant parts without being too distracted by the busy background. In many ways the image becomes an almost an abstract one, because the viewer initially takes in the shapes and colors without immediately being able to tell what the main object is.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Wow, I can’t decide if it’s exotic or scary………but so interesting. Thank you again.
Wow!!!! Never seen anything like that.
The diversity of God’s creation never ceases to amaze me. 🙂
Indeed! 👍
Very interesting and beautiful. I’ve never seen this lily; thanks for sharing.
I continue to be amazed at the new things that I see at places that I have been to before. It is one of the reasons why I am content to go back to the same places over and over.
Nicely photographed. I have never seen one of these, but do recall similar waterside plants in southern Africa.
A new one for me…so beautiful. You captured it well, Mike. Nature truly is astounding!
Thanks, Eliza. I try to stay alert–I am often surprised by what I manage to see.
What an intriguing lily!
It almost looks like something that you would see growing underwater.
Nice capture of a challenging bloom, Mike.
Thanks, Ellen. As you can appreciate, I also had to maneuver around a bit, because I was shooting with the Tamron 180mm lens, so I could not zoom to compose. 🙂
Indeed I have found that to be a challenge and one reason I resisted this lens. But it also makes me think more about compositions.
A lot depends on the subject. I have found that when I go to photograph flowers in my friend Cindy’s garden, my 60mm macro lens gives me more options for shooting angles than my 180mm macro. I think it is good to slow down and think about composition and the slow focusing of the Tamron 180mm generally forces me to slow down (though I also use it to photograph dragonflies in flight, but that is a whole other story). “)
I am now wondering how much I’ll use the 100mm macro I got before the 180mm became available. Small spaces like an urban garden could be a reason.
I guess it all depends on the subject and the situation. If there is a lot of vegetation in the foreground, for example, it can be a problem to frame a shot from the longer distance with the 180mm. I tend to use my 180mm a lot and occasionally my 60mm macro, but must confess that I only rarely use my 100mm macro, which was got me started in the macro world.
Oh I do like that very much Mike! Fascinating. I don’t have any problem understanding that would be a very difficult capture and I think you’ve achieved a great result!
Neat!
Just found some in a swamp yesterday morning 😃😃. Same issue… how do you photograph one LOL. You solved the close up a lot better than mine.
That is cool to hear, Ted. I know that they grow in the wild in the south, but did not know anyone who had actually seen them. As for photography, they are definitely a challenge. I think that the best shots I have seen were taken by a friend with her iPhone. She could get really close to frame the shot and the small sensor of the iPhone gives a really wide depth of field, so essentially everything was in focus.
Ellen and I grabbed a few shots, so eventually they will rise to the top and I’ll be sure to post.
As an aside, the Lowcountry is the old ‘Wild Kingdom’ show, except it’s really right here. Yesterday was slow however, we stepped out to a nearby dike and… Great Blue, Little Blue, Great Egret, Alligator, and Night Heron in one spot. As they ‘an embarrassment of riches’.
We have two native Hymenocallis species that are common: H. occidentalis and H. liriosme. I would have thought this one was H. occidentalis, but of course I didn’t know of this species. In spring, our ditches are filled with the so-called Texas spider lily (H. liriosme): like this.
I messed up the link. Let’s try this.
Wow. That’s a whole lot of spider lilies–the link works. 🙂
I am not sure what it was–you have much more experience with spider lilies than I do. I was relying on info from a friend of mine, though this was a new one for her too.
I have never seen anything quite like it, Mike. Super photo!
Thanks, Pete. It is definitely unusual, like something that might grow in the tropics.
Wow, this is unique! It reminds me of a slightly scarier version of our wetlands spider lilies.