Blue flowers and red filaments

 

Blueweed

 

The Viper's Bugloss (Echium vulgare) produces a lot of rich nectar, a blue pollen, and attracts pollinators.  It looks great, but, should be avoided.

Echium vulgare

  

The prickly hairs can be skin irritants. The plant contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids; these can cause liver damage to livestock and humans. The alkaloid is also in the honey.  The honey should not eaten regularly or for long terms.

Sweet Joe Pye

With the decline of small field farmers, this hay field is no longer mowed.  It has overgrown with . . . 

 

Eutrochium purpureum

 

. . . Sweet Joe-Pye Weed (Eutrochium purpureum).  

 

Up close with Joe:

 

Flower head

Each flower head has many florets.  The nectar rich flowers are enjoyed by bees, bumble bees, butterflies, and other pollinators.  The scent of sweet vanilla is wonderful.

 

 

 

Orange tiger lily

 

Called the "common tiger lily" or "orange day lily", this cluster of rain-dropped Hemerocallis Fulva is a sight to see.

  

Ox eye spiral

 

Don't get dizzy

The Leucanthemum vulgare is considered in some places to be an invasive species.  That does not prevent one from taking a closer look at the spiraling floret of the ox eye daisy.

 

Close up buttercup

That is yellow!

Commonly known as St. Anthony's turnip, the butter cup (Ranunculus bulbosus) has bright yellow flowers.  The flower petals are glossy and curved; they reflect light towards the center of the flower.  The "turnip" name comes from the bulbous root of this flower.

Children use the flower in a game to determine if someone likes butter.  One child picks the yellow flower and asks another "Do you like butter?". They then hold the yellow flower up close under the others chin, see the yellow reflection from the yellow flower on the skin, and exclaim that "Yes, you like butter.".

Two bees in a blossom

 

. . . munch munch munch . . . 

Two bumblebees banqueting in a rose blossom.   

 

These bumble bees may be Bombus auricomus (black and gold bumblebee); they are so bunched up it is hard tell.

 

 

 

Skipper on clover

 

Sipping on clover, over and over

 

A skipper butterfly pauses on a clover flower for a refreshing sip of nectar. 

This'll blue

 

Ready to blow away

 

A common thistle ( Cirsium vulgare ) seed pod has exploded, ready to send its seed on the next wind.

 

 

Pink musk mallow

 

Pinkie pink!

A pink musk mallow (Malva moschata) shows off its pinkness. 

 

Caterpillar and flower

 

That must have been a long crawl to get to a flower so tall.

 

 

What is that?

 

The flower - maybe an echinacea?  The caterpillar - maybe a skipper butterfly?

 

 

Feeding on flowers

If you can identify the flower and /or the caterpillar, post a comment.  This unexpected find was seen in a field of flowers in southern Quebec, near the middle of the Vermont border with Quebec.

 

 

Floral fecundity

 

In full bloom

 

The wild tulip - Tulipa sylvestris - has a very faint fragrance:  sweet, slightly vanilla, slightly banana.

 

Pollinated

 

The stamen consists of the anther that has the pollen and the filament that supports the anther.  The pistil consists of the stigma, which catches the pollen, the style that holds up the stigma, and the ovary that produces the seeds.

 

Apple blossom time

 

Waiting for a pollinator

 

 

Pollinate me!

 

Apple blossoms now mean apples by the Fourth of July (or that week).

Wild tulip

 

After a rain

This wild tulip - Tulipa sylvestris - appeared several years ago in an untended part of the garden. How it got there, when, who - is all a mystery, but the  bloom of the woodland tulip is looked for each spring.

Looking back

Eye fun

When leaving, a look back to see what you are leaving looks like leaves you with an impression of where you were.  

This late afternoon sun lit spring scene is presented as a relaxed view 3d stereograph.

Sunny and bright

Small sunflower

This small sunflower with lemon yellow petals was grown from the sunflower seeds that are in bird seed.  It is much smaller than was expected!

Some of the other seeds that are in bird seed were also planted.  They came up as well.  Being grasses, they were not as interesting as the sunflowers.

Bees and crocuses

Two bees in the blossoms

It is spring, it is warm and sunny, and the crocus flowers are open.  For a day or three, it gets warm - very, very warm.  So warm, that one can smell the sweetness of the crocus blossoms.  And, hear the bees buzzing among the blossoms.  It is a feeding frenzy.  

Five bees among the blossoms

Where they come from, where they go afterwards - who knows.  But for that day or two, the flowers are filled with fresh, sweet nectar, ripe pollen - and bees. 

Yellow trio

Three yellows

Tulips can self-pollinate and can be cross-pollinated.  The dark patterns inside this trio of yellow tulips look like they should attract any pollinators that may come by.  

No flowers

No, not open 

The storefront of this closed florist shop is so neat and well kept up that one thinks the store is still open; it is not.

Fallen flowers

Honeysuckle flowers (species Lonicera)

The yellow orange fallen flowers of this honeysuckle stand out against the grey concrete wall.  The species Lonicera is considered an invasive plant.

Rosy pink

Rose bush in bud and flower 

Walking past a garden, this blooming rose bush beckoned to be smelled.  HTML still does not support the <smell> tag, so a photograph will have to do until it does.