20070310

Too pretty to eat? Too strange?


Remember the post where I mentioned the Fibonacci sequence? The sequence appears all over nature, some of the most popularly mentioned examples being sunflower seed heads and nautilus shells. Here's another one for the table. I had not even known of this amazing vegetable until I moved to Switzerland. It's called romanesco, and is a member of the cauliflower/broccoli family. John Walker of Fourmilab has an interesting write-up titled Fractal Food (including cooking directions!) on it.

Ich hatte in Februar einen Eintrag über die Fibonacci-Folge. Der Folge kann man überall in Natur sehen, zum Beispiel bei den Samen der Sonnenblumen. Hier ist noch eine. Ich wusste nicht, bis ich in die Schweiz kam, dass dieses fantastische Gemüse existiert. Das ist ein Pyramidenblumen(der)kohl, ein Angehöriger der Kohlgruppe.

20070309 Nikon Coolpix 950

7 comments:

Kate said...

This vegetable is as attractive as any blossom.

Dsole said...

Too pretty!!!

~tanty~ said...

How is the taste? Is it like cauliflower?

Ming the Merciless said...

Beautiful photo of the vegetable. I have seen it in the green market but never bought or taste it before. But it is a beautiful and architecturally impressive vegetable.

Did you take it home to photography it? I love the inky blue background on the upper left corner.

Great photo!! Looks like a commercial print art.

Ame said...

WOW Z! What an amazing specimen! And I was thinking "CALIFlower" too! =)

Very interesting...and great close-up snap too!

Oh, and ~blush~ thanks for the visit and nice comment!

;)

Mountainboy said...

Great photo, do you use any specialist macro lens etc to get a close up like that?

Z said...

Kate and Dsole: I agree. :-)

Tanty: A little like cauliflower, but there's something a little different about it.

Ming: I bought it to eat it. As I was picking out my choice in the store, I looked at how the light created shadows on it and I thought I should try to get some nice photos. The background that you like is the lid from a Bigso box from the "Home Office" range in black. I've used it for many a background for flowers and I really like it.

Ame: thanks, and you're welcome!

Mountainboy: No specialist lens, just my 7 year old (!!!) Nikon Coolpix 950 -- quite mundane really. I've listed my *ahem* gear at the bottom of my blog, and when the camera is not the Lumix, I state it at the bottom of the relevant post. That Nikon has the best macro setting I have, and I think I may have made a mistake in buying the Lumix over the similar (superzoom) Nikon.