I found long ago that bumblebees and other flower bees sleep deep inside of flowers at night. Here, they are snug little bugs! In the morning, they have a ready source of pollen for breakfast before they go about their daily business. Most flowers, such as lilies, squash blossoms and trumpet vine blooms are sturdy and provide shelter against rains and the chill of night. However! Sometimes, the choice of bloom can be a mistake.
Last night we had torrential rains. Everything became soaked. This morning's hike proved to be rather soggy with the leaves and blooms still dripping water. One small bumblebee was quite soaked. It had made the mistake of choosing the bloom of the Althea bush as its nighttime quarters. Normally, while this would not have been the best choice, it definitely would not have been the worst. The blooms of this shrub are "one time only" blooms. They open during the day and then close...for good...at dusk. If a bee climbed inside the bloom, the soft folds of petals would gently caress it like soft blankets as it closed for the night. In the morning, the bee could still wiggle its way out of the petals. With the rains, however, the petals would almost "glue" themselves together making a tightly enclosed "cocoon" around the bee. Obviously, our little bee had sense enough to climb out of its bed and "ride out the storm" on the outer edge of the shriveled bloom. Poor, little bee was covered with water droplets but was still clinging to its bloom!
It seems that this summer has had two things going for it. It has been hot! We have had near record temperatures. It has also been wet. Rainstorms pop up almost every evening. as of late. These storms have a lot of wind, lightning and thunder. The little bee endured quite the ordeal last night so I am in hopes that it finds a safer place for tonight's slumber. Perhaps it should try the new hotel called "Madonna Lily" down the garden a ways. I hear tell that its "open all night" and is touted to have strong petals. Sweet dreams, Little Bee!
While out walking PJ for his last run of the day, I noticed what looked like a lovely flower on the ground. Hmm? This was not some easily recognizable blossom. I thought that I was, at least, basically familiar with all of the blooms around the hillside, yet, here was one that I did not know! This called for a bit of closer observation. Not wanting to "uproot" some ground cover bloom, I knelt near the object. It was then that I realized the old woman's eyesight was far worse that she knew! What my eyes saw as a bloom was nothing more than the stem cap from a wild persimmon. I should have realized this from the get-go since I have seen these a thousand times before. In my defense, however, none of the previous stem caps have ever had the rich colors of this one. Instead of being either the bright green of an unripe fruit or the dried brown of a luscious ripe persimmon, this was tri-colored. The center was a rusty red, surrounded by a autumn gold and then edged with cool blue. The "petals" were highlighted with a deep brown! It sure resembled a flower!
Once I realized that what my unknown bloom was, I started searching the branches for the first few ripe persimmons. None were ready, yet. This is understandable since we need a frost to fully sweeten the fruits to their tasty deliciousness! Had I snacked on one today, my mouth would have puckered and I would have instantly regretted my hastiness.
The "flower" was obviously discarded by a raccoon that had raided the tree last night. For some odd reason, the tartness and astringency of the unripe persimmons does not seem to effect the critters as much as it does humans. We lean towards taste over nutrition. The raccoon knew that the persimmons would provide a nutritious meal. I just hope he grows tired of eating persimmons before he totally clears my tree! I would love to have a few as a snack come this winter. In the meantime, I will enjoy the raccoon's castoff "flowers" and maybe sip a cup of persimmon leaf tea while I wait for a frost!
Oh, what a beauty! Doing a bit of meandering the other day, my cousin and I came across a bit of gorgeousness in the palmettos. Dangling about head high were two lovely white blooms. After gaining a better look at the bloom, we found that they had deep violet centers. The blooms resembled morning glories in shape but were much larger. We oohed and aahed over the blooms for a few moments before continuing our morning hike. Fishing was on our minds so the lovely flowers were soon forgotten.
This evening as I sat going through a bunch of pictures that I had taken during my cousin's visit, the photograph of the blooms stood out amongst the others of mainly sunrises. Wow! Since the picture was taken at daybreak, the white blooms sharply contrasted with the dark background making them seem even brighter. I was impressed!
For those who may not know, when you spy these telltale white blooms on the side of the road, you are actually looking at the blooms of a Wild Potato Vine. The plant is a relatively hardy plant that grows as a vine reaching up to twenty or so feet. It requires little or no care, can thrive in direct sun or partial shade (like this one!) and is attractive to bees, butterflies and hummingbirds. The only downside of the plant is that the seeds are toxic to humans if ingested.
Since I have no plans of eating the plant and do enjoy the wildflowers of the area, this one can continue to thrive where it is growing. There is absolutely no reason to uproot something so lovely!
Has it ever struck you that most every plant on this good earth has a use other than what we normally consider? Think about it for a moment. It is a daily occurrence that science discovers that some plant has wondrous properties that can be most useful in one way or another. Of course, there are those that probably should not be ingested or tinkered with in any form but somewhere down the line, I guarantee, a helpful purpose will be discovered. We just need to look long and hard. Some plants have healing properties while others can be used in production of handy goods but all start out as that ordinary old plant. It has only been a few decades ago that the lowly soybean was looked upon as a weed. Then it graduated into the use as fodder for livestock. Wow! Look at it now! Soybeans! The wonder plant! That said, there just has to be alternative uses for every plant...EVERY plant.
Down in the marsh, there is a small plant called the Salt Marsh Aster. As a plant, it is more or less nondescript but it does have an adorable little bloom. The plant sits unnoticed until the buds start to open. Then, wham! Everyone takes notice. (Or, at least I do!) I like the Salt Marsh Asters. They brighten up an otherwise drab bit of marsh. Still, is that the sole purpose of this little plant? To look sweet and draw butterflies?
I pondered that fact as I peeped over the edge of the boards of the pier. A single bloom braved the winter's bite. The last few days have been muggy hot thus causing the plant to push out a bloom. Come two days from now, the cold will shorten the life of the flower. But, my question was, why? Why do these plants struggle to grow in the harsh environment of salty mud? There has to be a reason other than to provide a minute amount of nectar for a passing butterfly.
Then it hit me. Perhaps I am over-thinking the value of things here. Perhaps, just perhaps, this is one of those things that was put on this earth for pure joy. (You do realize, of course, there ARE things like that!) After all...in midst of the drear of this gray day, the little white aster beaming up from the marsh, did, indeed, make me smile! Perhaps that was the sole purpose of the plant's existence. To bring a smile....to brighten the day. Not bad, Little Aster, not bad at all. You have done your job well. Now if we could all take a clue from that overlooked plant and bring a smile to someone's face...for no purpose whatsoever...just purely for the joy of it. What a delightful objective that would be! So....go out and be a Salt Marsh Aster! Cause someone to smile! It will do you good and spread a bit of joy in this downtrodden, old world and that, my friend, is a beautiful thing.
