Fractals and nature's complexity

It was the first really cold day of the year this morning. I welcome it. I wandered out to my garden to see what was up. 

There are some unusual and pretty blooms right now.

One of the bromeliad balensae is blooming, four months or so after the rest of them!

Or  should say, preblooming, because soon it will be sporting a magnificent peppermint colored spike!

Initially the interior leaves turn scarlet red.

One of my agaves is sporting a flower as well but I don't recall the spike being so hairy at the top before.

This should also be an interesting bloom when it unfurls.

Many of the things that grow at my ranch have interesting fractal patterns, perhaps that is why I love the agaves and aloes so much, being a lover of visual order and complexity?

I walked in the preserve this morning, was grokking the white sage when I caught my sneaker on a rock and hurtled forward, catching myself  in prone position before I suffered even a minor tragedy. 

But it was close.

Anyway, I was thinking how cool nature was, to have two white sages fifty feet apart from each other, one with broad leaves and the other thin. 

Same plant, same family.

But then again, you might have a brother or sister that is tall and brunette and you might be short and blond.

I have seen mountain lions almost black or chocolate brown and others that were tawny and pale.

Same wide variety in red tailed hawks.

One plant flowers in May the other says, hey, lets wait until October!

Nature is a trip!