Nature's Patterns and Textures

For the past couple of weekends we've been going to local nature preserves. Last weekend we went to the wetlands preserve and yesterday we hiked up to the tree top walk in Bukit Timah Nature Preserve. Here are just a few of the beautiful patterns and textures that can be found in the natural world around us. (Ok, I threw in some that aren't really patterns or textures but are just beautiful...so sue me!)

A vast variety of palm trees are all over Singapore and the leaves on this one were about 6 feet across at the widest part and when tapped sounded like a thin plastic - very rigid and structural.
These leaves look like reptile skin with deep cracks and veins like a crocodile having been in the sun for years.
One of my favorite things to photograph anywhere in nature is the pattern of algae/fungus growth on the bark of trees or on the sides of rocks. The colors are beautifully subtle and the patterns almost lace-like in their delicacy.
This is just a nice picture of the rain clouds retreating and the sun peaking through the trees in Bukit Timah.
The grooves of this fern leaf are temporarily being used to catch raindrops like a child sticking out their tongue in the rain.
Whoever ate zig zags all over this leaf would never pass a roadside drunk driving test. Too beautiful not to post.In order from left to right: Moi, Ruth, Jonathan, & Dice. (True to form, Arjun has yet to catch up to us.)