Plant life

A fly (Diptera) has been infected by a parasitic ‘zombie’ fungus (Cordyceps sp.). Parasitized hosts are compelled to migrate to favorable locations for the fungus’s growth. Here, they await the death, at which point the fungus proliferate in fruiting bodies full of spores that will disperse to infect more victims.

These particular beech trees (Fagus sylvatica) have assumed this strange and particular physiognomy. The phenomenon, which in technical terms is called "creeping", is of a purely geological nature so that the slow downstream movement of the surface layers of the soil drag everything inside, including young trees.

A shot taken by the drone while flying over a monumental, ancient beech forest (Fagus sylvatica) in central Italy. A fantastic place, made even more impressive by the vibrant autumn colors, clearly visible in this shot from above. I took this photo in the early morning, flying the drone over that magnificent forest. Several trees had already lost their leaves, revealing the white naked trunks typical of beech trees

With the raise of temperatures and the poor rains, the water level descends and all kinds of colors and textures appear on the river side. These algae caught my attention and the first thing I thought was that I was looking at an abstract painting.

The Margined Ramshorn pond snail (Planorbis planorbis) carries a galaxy of photosynthetic algae, including Chlamydomonas and Micrasterias, living within a slimy biofilm covering the snail’s shell. The Chlorophyll within the algae fluoresces red when illuminated by Ultraviolet light. The snail’s intestines are contrasted in shades of midnight blue.

In the Bavarian Forest National Park there was a large bark beetle (Coleoptera Curculionidae Scolytinae) infestation from 1990. In a nature conservation project, the entire area has been left to its own devices for almost 30 years. The result today is a healthy forest slowly rising from the remains of the dead forest.

Winter view from a drone of Cuejdel Lake, the largest natural dam in Romania, showing trees trapped in ice.