Clouds and fog

Full moon above the Ruwenzori Mountains, Virunga National Park, eastern Zaire. Since Ancient Greece, these mountains have been known as ‘Mountains of the Moon’. This area is described in depth on the page Travel episodes – Zaire 1981: The ghost forest. (Photo copyright © by Kaj Halberg)

Pied Alp cattle, grazing near Kasereck, Grossglockner, Austria. This breed and many other types of cattle are described on the page Animals: Animals as servants of Man. (Photo copyright © by Kaj Halberg)

Mount Taranaki is a dormant volcano on the west coast of the North Island, New Zealand. This striking mountain rises to a height of 2,518 m from the surrounding lowland. It was named Taranaki by the Maori, from the words tara (‘mountain peak’), and, presumably, ngaki (‘shining’), alluding to its snow-covered peak.

Until recently, the official name of this mountain was Egmont, thus named by British explorer and captain James Cook (1728-1779), in honour of John Perceval, 2nd Earl of Egmont (1711-1770), who, as former First Lord of the Admiralty, had supported the search for Terra Australis Incognita.

Shah Jahan (1592-1666), 5th emperor of the Muslim Moghul Empire in northern India, is most famous for ordering the construction of Taj Mahal (‘Crown of the Palace’), a mausoleum near the city of Agra, erected in honour of his favourite wife, Arjumand Banu Begum, called Mumtaz Mahal (‘Chosen One of the Palace’). She died in 1630 after giving birth to her fourteenth child. Construction of this mausoleum lasted 22 years, from 1632 to 1654.

On a foggy day, sheep are running down a slope on an islet in Roskilde Fjord, Zealand, Denmark. The domestic sheep is described on the page Animals: Animals as servants of Man. (Photo copyright © by Kaj Halberg)

Horses in morning fog, Cades Cove, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee, United States. The domestic horse is described on the page Animals: Animals as servants of Man. (Photo copyright © by Kaj Halberg)

The Chinese hemlock (Tsuga chinensis) is distributed from Tibet eastwards to China and Taiwan, and thence southwards to northern Vietnam, growing at altitudes between 1,000 and 3,500 m.

A large tree, to 45 m tall, with scaly, grey or blackish-brown bark, alternating with pale yellowish-brown, corky bark. The linear and flat needles are olive-green, to 2 cm long, arranged spirally, grooved on the upperside, with two white stomatic bands below. Male cones are single or in groups up to 5, purple, to 8 mm long. The small, pendulous female cones are reddish-brown, ovoid, to 2 cm long and 1 cm wide.

Taiwan is home to a variety of Chinese hemlock, formosana, which is quite common in mixed broad-leaved forests in montane areas of the island, at altitudes between 1,700 and 3,500 m. Some authorities question the validity of this variety, claiming that it is identical with the type.

The common name alludes to the similarity in the smell of the crushed foliage to that of the poison hemlock (Conium maculatum). The foliage, however, is not poisonous.

Thunder cloud with many plasma ‘balls’, one of which is emitting much light (the small white dot), near Albrunna Lund, Öland, Sweden. These ‘balls’ were invisible to the naked eye. Plasma is discussed on the page Book: Seed of Knowledge, Stone of Plenty, Chapter 6. (Photo copyright © by Kaj Halberg)

Morning fog, Keoladeo National Park, Rajasthan, India. The bird is a grey heron (Ardea cinerea). This species is described on several pages on this website, including Fishing, Animals: Urban animal life, and Animals – Birds: Birds in the Indian Subcontinent. (Photo copyright © by Kaj Halberg)

Devil’s Tower is a rock formation in north-eastern Wyoming – presumably the eroded remnant of a laccolith, a large mass of magma, which is intruded through sedimentary rock. As the magma cooled, 6-sided (sometimes 4-, 5-, and 7-sided) vertical columns formed. This amazing rock rises dramatically above the Belle Fourche River, 265 m high from base to summit.

For hundreds of years, this rock has been sacred to local peoples, such as Lakota, Cheyenne, and Kiowa, and it appears in the mythologies of several other tribes. Today, it is the site of tribal vision quests and other rituals, and in the surrounding grasslands, Sun Dances and other tribal ceremonies are performed.

Vision quests are described in detail on the page Book: Seed of Knowledge, Stone of Plenty, Chapter 3.

The umbrella acacia (Vachellia tortilis), previously known as Acacia tortilis, was named due to the shape of the crown, which is often broad and curved like an umbrella. It is a very widespread and common tree, to 20 m tall, distributed in the entire northern Africa, southwards to Senegal and Chad, and in a broad belt from Egypt southwards through eastern Africa to South Africa and southern Namibia. It also occurs in the Middle East, from Syria southwards through the entire Arabian Peninsula.

Previously, it was thought that 4 acacia species occurred in this vast area, but research has shown that they are all subspecies of V. tortilis. (Source: fao.org/3/Q2934E)

Other species of acacia are described on the page In praise of the colour yellow.

The umbrella acacia is very common on the East African savanna. These pictures are from Serengeti National Park, Tanzania (upper 3), and Masai Mara National Park, Kenya. (Photos copyright © by Kaj Halberg)

Cumulus clouds above the islets Mågeøerne, Funen, Denmark. The birds are great cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo) and herring gulls (Larus argentatus), which breed on these islands. (Photo copyright © by Kaj Halberg)

Euphorbia candelabrum is a succulent, tree-like species of spurge, usually growing to about 10 m tall, occasionally to 20 m. It is endemic to eastern Africa around the African Horn and along the Great Rift Valley, growing in dry wooded grasslands and on rocky slopes up to an elevation of about 2,200 m.

The specific name alludes to its shape, which resembles a candelabrum, giving rise to the popular name candelabra tree.

A close-up of this plant is shown on the page Silhouettes.

The Annapurna Range in central Nepal contains a number of striking pekas, including Annapurna I (8091 m), Annapurna II (7939 m), Gangapurna (7454 m), Glacier Dome (7193 m), Annapurna South (7219 m), and Machhapuchhare (6993 m).

The latter peak is sacred to Hindus and may not be scaled. In Nepali, Machhapuchhare means ‘fishtail’ – a name given to this mountain in allusion to its twin peaks, which are combined by a curved ridge.

Morning fog around Ales Stenar, near the village of Kåseberga, Skåne, Sweden, a megalithic structure from the Bronze Age, consisting of c. 60 stones, erected to form the outline of a ship, c. 80 m long and 20 m wide. (Photo copyright © by Kaj Halberg)

Kopjes are isolated rocky outcrops, which, somewhat wantonly, pierce the African savanna here and there. Incidentally, they are the remains of ancient, eroded mountains. To the Boer, when they migrated to southern Africa in the 1700s, these outcrops resembled bald heads, so they named them kopjes (‘heads’ in Dutch).

A snow-white stupa is dimmed by evaporating morning clouds, near Haputale, Sri Lanka. Stupas and other aspects of Buddhism are described in depth on the page Religion: Buddhism. (Photo copyright © by Kaj Halberg)

Adam’s Peak (2243 m) is a mountain in south-western Sri Lanka, sacred to followers of three religions. In a rock on the summit is a depression, shaped like a footprint. Christians and Muslims alike maintain that Adam made this footprint, when he and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden after The Fall. Buddhists claim that the Buddha made the footprint when he, according to legend, visited Sri Lanka.

Sphaeropteris lepifera is a species of tree fern with a trunk to 6 m tall or more, about 15 cm in diameter. The leaves are very large, to 2 m long, thrice pinnately divided, primary pinnae up to 80 cm long, secondary pinnae usually to 14 cm long. It is found in south-eastern China, Taiwan, the Philippines, and New Guinea, and on the southernmost islands in Japan.

The commonest African fruit bat is the straw-coloured fruit bat (Eidolon helvum), which lives in sub-Saharan savannas and forest, southwards to South Africa, and also in the south-western part of the Arabian Peninsula.

The place of origin of the coconut palm (Cocos nucifera) is unknown, and today it is found everywhere along tropical coasts, in some areas also inland. This species is utilized for countless purposes. Oil from the nuts, and also dried copra, is used in cooking and in lamps. Mats, weaved from the leaves, are used as walls and roofs in houses, and mats and rope are produced from the fibres in the husk. Charcoal is made from the shells, and the trunk is utilized as timber and firewood.

Schrenk’s spruce (Picea schrenkiana) can grow to a large tree, to 50 m tall and with a trunk diameter up to 2 m. It is restricted to the Tien Shan Mountains in Xinjiang, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, usually forming pure forests at altitudes between 1,200 and 3,500 m. Two subspecies are found, schrenkiana in Kazakhstan and Xinjiang, and tianshanica in Kyrgyzstan.

It was named in honour of Baltic-German naturalist Alexander von Schrenk (1816-1876), known for his expeditions to Central Asia and northern Russia, and author of Reise nach dem Nordosten des europäischen Rußlands, durch die Tundren der Samojeden, zum arktischen Uralgebirge (1848).

Monsoon clouds in a coniferous forest of blue pine (Pinus wallichiana), Himalayan cedar (Cedrus deodara), and West Himalayan fir (Abies pindrow), Manali, Himachal Pradesh, India. (Photos copyright © by Kaj Halberg)

Evening clouds around Mount Kinabalu (4095 m), Sabah, Borneo, the tallest mountain in Malaysia. It is described in depth on the page Travel episodes – Borneo 1985: A hike up Gunung Kinabalu. (Photo copyright © by Kaj Halberg)

The tall and sturdy banana plants are often called banana trees or banana palms, but both these terms are erroneous, as the plant is actually a huge herb, whose ‘trunk’ consists of thick layers of modified, closely packed leaf-stalks, forming a so-called pseudostem (false stem), also called a corm.

These plants, comprising about 85 species of the genus Musa, are native to subtropical and tropical areas, from India eastwards to Taiwan, and thence southwards through Southeast Asia, Indonesia, and New Guinea to northern Australia.

The Taiwan banana (Musa formosana), which may grow to 6 m tall, is endemic to Taiwan, growing on forested slopes, from near sea level to an altitude of about 1,000 m.