Inflorescence: obesa nursery

Images from the Obesa nursery located in Graaff-Reinet, South Africa. Despite the dizzying 36+ degree heat I had a very happy day wandering about this amazing cacti garden. Founded by C.J. Bouwer the collection is over 35 years old and houses some 7000 species of plants. Particularly captivating was this Encaphalartos altensteinii apparently, a young female plant about 13 or-so years old grown from seeds, with its enormous bright orange cone or 'inflorescence':

Aerial Slices: Islands and Ocean

North and South Malosmadulu Atolls are in the Maldives, an island republic in the northern Indian Ocean, southwest of India. The Maldives are made up of a chain of 1,192 small coral islands, which are grouped into clusters of atolls. It has a total area of 298 square kilometers and a population of about 330,000 - NASA Earth Observatory