Lesser or Common Knapweed Centaurea nigra is a thistle-like wildflower found in many grasslands, woodland rides, trackside verges and rough pasture. It is one of the most important late-summer nectar sources for insects and is especially popular with butterflies such as the Common Blue, Marbled White and Meadow Brown, which can sometimes cover the flowers in large numbers. Enclosed by pale pink bracts, its flower heads within are made mostly of small tubular florets. When an insect visits for nectar, the stamens move downwards, pushing pollen onto its body.
For thirty years, John has ventured across the world returning with stories of his experiences of the wilderness which few have encountered. He has drunk tea with Thangboche’s High Lama in the Kumbu, collected shells from Pacific beaches, run with wilderbeests in the ancient dusts of Serengeti, hiked to hidden springs of Grand Canyon, encountered walrus’, wolves and streams of caribou in the low islands of Aleutian Alaska. His travels are infused with adventure and wonderment, from Galapagos to the Andes, Namibia, Mongolia and the Amazon Basin. Closer to home, John has photographed almost all wild land locations in Britain, from the windswept tors of Cornwall to white strands of the Outer Hebrides.
As a photographer of wilderness it is the drama of landscape, its biodiversity and wild weather that attracts him most. Major expeditions including seven months spent in Antarctica, a winter in Spitzbergen and an historic four hundred mile traverse of the Greenland Icecap, John's assignments have taken him to some of the wildest lands on Earth.
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