In case you haven’t already caught this on Boing Boing, an urban plant watcher in Littleton, Colorado spotted an image of Jesus in his local flora. Don Taylor photographed this amazing vine cluster on a telephone pole, extending its “arms” out onto the wires. To him, the arrangement looked remarkably like a crucifix.
Maybe it’s my years in Catholic high school talking, but I agree that you really don’t need much imagination to see Jesus in this plant. Taylor told the local news station, “I’m a nonreligious individual, but this struck me,” which describes my own sentiments. But even so, I can see the figure and even a sort of crown-of-thorns shape around the head!
We’ve had some very lively discussions on Urban Plant Research about plants making shapes, particularly shortly after Michael Jackson’s death, when a family in Sara’s hometown of Stockton thought they saw Michael Jackson in a tree stump in their yard!
I’d be curious to hear if any of you have ever spotted figures or faces in plant growth, urban or otherwise – and whether you think plans might be trying to tell us something.
urban plant research 
I have not heard anyone comment on what appears to be the face of Jesus appearing in the Littleton vine. In the raw footage of the video taken (http://www.valleycentral.com/news/story.aspx?id=645065), it zooms in and a face similar to that seen on the shroud of Turin appears. Also, check out this translucent rock and what some people say is the face/profile of Jesus inside! The story behind it on Facebook at Miracle Stone (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001878642380&ref=ts).
El Paisano on Facebook
Not quite the same thing—no religious connotations—but at
http://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2011/06/19/mountain-pink-bud/
I and at least one commenter could imagine that the flower in the back was a yellow-headed dancer facing forward with upper body thrown back and pink arms upraised.
And at
http://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2011/06/24/bluebell-bud-opening-into-a-flower/
my wife imagined a yellow flower trapped inside a purple one.
Good eye and imagination! I really appreciate the awareness certain gifted individuals possess. I am amazed at what flies over the head of most people.
El Paisano, thank you for the link to the Miracle Stone. I must admit that in that case, I don’t really see the face. But of course, that doesn’t mean anything, because we all see things differently.
I can imagine Steve’s dark pink flower as a dancer, though – wondering why you decided to put it in the background of the white bud, Steve? And the rolled-up petals of the bluebell do indeed look like the strong, cabled bars of a cage trapping the fuzzy yellow form inside.
Steve, I like that you call your photos of wildflowers “portraits.” I used to photograph a lot of people and when I first shifted to plants, I thought of my photos as portraits too.
Ah: another portraitist! I’m happy that you can see plant photographs as portraits too.
With regard to the mountain pink portrait, I sometimes like to play off one stage of a plant against a later one, giving an intimation of what the first one will become. That was the case with the bud and flower of mountain pink. I don’t know that I saw the flower in the back as a dancer until I looked at the image on my computer screen; if I’d seen it that way when I was at the site of the plants, I probably would have taken separate pictures of the flower. I’m sometimes amazed by what I don’t see in my viewfinder at the time of taking a photograph and what turns out to be in the picture when I look at it later.