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By Dan Leone

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IT WOULDN'T BE practical, of course, but it seems like Sidney Hollister's photographs ought to be out among the plants he photographed, rather than decorating the Strybing Arboretum and Botanical Gardens' library walls. It would be fabulous to wander through the green shrubs – especially this time of year, when there aren't too many flowers blooming – and see Hollister's colorful images of the plants' secret lives alongside the scientific placards, with their dry descriptions of each genus and species. While some visitors quickly walk through the arboretum or fall asleep on the grass before they get a chance to explore its depths, Hollister has done more than his share of looking and lingering, and his images reveal all kinds of things you might miss otherwise: incredible blues, greens, and reds; intricate patterns of shadow and light; and strange textures and surfaces that, up close, look more like alien flesh than anything from this planet. He often deliberately blurs the focus or pushes the camera so brazenly into his subject that we find ourselves looking almost literally into its heart. Maybe he's searching for the souls of these plants, or at least some kind of intangible essence that can be grasped only after this kind of prolonged, intense contemplation. He makes it suddenly easy to tune out the dull roar of Lincoln Way traffic and to forget for a minute that we're not really in eastern Australia, or Chile, or wherever the signs might say. Also through Dec. 31, the library hosts an exhibit of books, figurines, and other memorabilia honoring the 100th anniversary of The Tale of Peter Rabbit's publication. Daily, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Golden Gate Park, Ninth Avenue at Lincoln Way, S.F. (415) 661-1316, ext. 303. (Lindsey Westbrook)