kinky pine

I was camping at my uncle and aunt's farm in the Outeniqua Mountains this weekend for my cousin's wedding (the kind of wedding where the bride wears wellies (painted cream of course), that takes place under the trees next to a mountain stream, where the guests are seated on rustic benches made from hacked invasive alien wattles and then are each given a tree sapling to plant somewhere on the farm). Anyway, while my sister was making tea and I was collecting pine needles for my bed from one of the remaining alien trees, I spotted this kinked pine needle. I subsequently found another two that were similarly kinked, and while I have a couple of ideas, if anyone knows how or why some of them do this, I would be most interested to find out! (and yes, a recent photographic commission has provided me with a long-awaited excuse to purchase a new toy - this is shot with the Nikkor 60mm Micro lens... yummy!)


kinky pine needle (shot at 1:1)


the whole of the tip of the kinky pine needle