I spent – let’s not calculate how long, because it won’t make us feel any better, but quite a long time – producing focus stacks of this, taken in flat light. And then I threw them all in the trash and went with this single shot taken in strong directional light, because I think it’s more interesting and brings out the fractal pattern more effectively.
Opinion seems to be divided over whether a Romanesco is a cauliflower or a type of broccoli, although to me it’s self-evidently a cauliflower – but it’s definitely a brassica, and has apparently been grown in Italy for hundreds of years. I prefer it to either broccoli or “normal” cauliflower because it has a delicate flavour (before I cover it in crème fraîche and cheese, at any rate), and a pleasantly crunch texture. After I’d immortalised it, R and I ate it as part of our main meal of the day, and it was delicious.
If you’re interested, there’s a thing here about phyllotaxis, which is the tendency for leaves to be arranged around a plant stem according to the golden ratio, and the occurrence of Fibonacci sequences in nature.
