The Daily Croissant

By Van in LA Van Swearingen

"Spathodea is a monotypic genus in the flowering plant family Bignoniaceae. The single species it contains, Spathodea campanulata, is commonly known as the Fountain Tree, African Tulip Tree, Flame-of-the-forest, Rudra Palash, Pichkari or Nandi Flame. It is a tree that grows between 7–25 m (23–82 ft) tall and is native to tropical Africa. This tree is planted extensively as an ornamental tree throughout the tropics and is much appreciated for its very showy reddish-orange or crimson (rarely yellow), campanulate flowers."

Dioptase with Calcite - Tsumeb Mine, Tsumeb, Otjikoto Region, Namibia
Size: 6.0 x 5.0 x 3.0 cm (miniature)

"Absolutely beautiful sparkling slightly translucent highly lustrous deep emerald-green crystals of dioptase to 1.1 cm in size are scattered attractively over a 6.0 x 5.0 x 3.0 cm white crystallized calcite matrix. One crystal, at the far right of the matrix, is damaged. This is very difficult to see without looking very closely. Other than this, the piece is perfect. Very colorful."

Copyright Akiyoshi Kitaoka 2011 (May 21)

"Each checkered background consists of squares but appears to be distorted like a bulge or concave. In addition, these figures show a retinal-slip-dependent anomalous motion illusion as well as a pattern-dependent expanding-contracting illusion."