“So it was a tale come true; A mighty oak from the acorn grew.”

Taking a few minutes to slow. Things. D.O.W.N…by way of this astonishing little video from Neil Bromhall, who runs a plant identification site called RightPlants4Me:

The acorn was collected in September and filmed in an underground set using a 2-hour interval between exposures. The acorn split soon after it was planted and continued to split during the winter months. In January the first sign of growing root could be seen, followed in February by the emergence of shoot. In March, the shoot broke through the soil surface. The leaves formed between March and April.

There’s something wonderful (and mildly terrifying) when I stumble across time-lapses like this one. I think it’s because I sort-of forget that plants are…well…alive. And this reminds me that they are by making their motion — the thing I most associate with life — more obvious to me that it would be otherwise.

The music — “Pendulum” by Oliver Ledbury — is a bit Glassian for my tastes. But I’ll forgive that, and easily. (Besides, if there’s a perfect use for Glass, it’s in backing time-lapse/slo-mo clips, for sure. Because repetition.)

And I love the silence at the end.

Attribution(s): “Acorn” provided by Shutterstock.