The blush is because that side faces south and all the light comes from the south in the winter.
EscondidoCal said:I like the way it grows, e.g. the fractal-like symmetry
on the "leaves" (what do you call the little details?)
Maybe it's an example of this?
The little bumps are tubercles, and each one had a vestigial leaf on it very early in life (long since gone). The leaf scars are visible as white spots in the photo. Each "serpent" in the photo is a stem, and they all arise with radial symmetry from a central stem.
In the parlance of medusas (imagining a Gorgon figure) the central stem is usually called the "head" and the radiating stems are called "arms". There are head crests and arm crests (separate things, which look very different) in this group.
I'm not sure if fractals are involved but it is a fascinating subject (and the flowers smell great). One would think there might be Fibonacci numbers involved (2,3,5,8,13,21, etc.) as they are with certain cacti, but I count 16 rows in the head (not a Fibonacci number).
