I love the patterns made by the bare branches of a line of magnolias in the Wellington Botanic Garden - their only clothing a frosting of pale grey-green lichen. Soon there will be large buds covered with soft hairs, and shapely globular flowers, then the green foliage obscuring the curious shapes of the branches. But, exposed by winter, they twist and writhe together busily, as if dancing an exotic dance.
The bare branches of a line of deciduous magnolias (probably Magnolia soulangeana).