The Nature Photography Thread

[RedSidedSPR]

Wow big ferns. Where are you in that shot?

[ConcinusMan]

Just outside the Olympic National Forest in NW Washington. The desert scene was about two weeks ago when I was just north of Reno/Sparks, Nevada. In about two more weeks, I'll be in the Puget Sound area in WA.

[RedSidedSPR]

Nice. I recognized the nevada pic. That's where you found those lizards right?

[ConcinusMan]

Yup

[kibakiba]

That big flower actually looks like Angelica. They flower like that and they get over 6 ft tall. They have flowers like that, also. The second year root oil is worth 200 dollars an ounce if you extract it right, and it's high quality and organic. It's used as a pain reliever I believe I read.

[ConcinusMan]

Thank you Chantel. Now lets see...

The plant I found:



A single leaf:



Angelica pics from the web:





Hmm... could be, but I'm seeing some subtle differences. Perhaps my plant is from the same genus. Oh wait. I looked it up and "Angelica" is the genus and there are many species. I think we're onto something. It's looking like it is some sort of Angelica but I can't seem to pinpoint the species.

Ooops. sorry about the huge images but I think you're right Chantel! I do think this is an Angelica species!

Thanks!

Now, how do we extract the oil I wonder, because there was a huge stand of these, all in full bloom. Being how they are biennials then of course, they must be second-year to be blooming.

[kibakiba]

Haha, I forgot to say the species.

there are only two that I know of, angelica archangelica and angelica atropurpurea... I think the atropurpurea one is the most expensive, because it's harder to grow, it needs 4 degree celcius weather to even sprout... You need to get the roots out, clean them up and there's 2 ways of extracting it... steam distilling, buying one is over 2000 dollars... or CO2 extraction which is what costs a fortune, and gets the highest quality and quantity of oil... its a newer way of extracting and thus, isn't possible

You'd probably need over 100 plants to get even half an ounce of oil, though.

[ConcinusMan]

Haha, I forgot to say the species.

there are only two that I know of, angelica archangelica and angelica atropurpurea...

There are 60 species is what I read.

You'd probably need over 100 plants to get even half an ounce of oil, though.

Well if that's true then one would be making considerably less than minimum wage to even bother with it.

[kibakiba]

I have 200 seeds of the atropurpurea and archangelica, those are the only ones available for sale that don't cost $10/100 seeds. It would be worth it, though since the whole plant can be used. Mind digging some up and giving them to me?

There are now 5 species I know of, one of which has painkilling properties in the stem and root. I think you just rub the oil on the area that hurts, I definitely need some of that for my back! The seeds are pretty expensive, though. And, they need special soil. Blah.

[ConcinusMan]

Well, I looked it up and from what I can find out, the dried roots are what is used, or an extract thereof. That's why I was saying it would be more work than it's worth if it takes that many plants to make an ounce of oil. The ground there is very hard to dig in. That would be a lot of labor just to get all those roots.