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LinkedInPosts Tagged: blanket flower
Blanket Flower: the Picture of Autumn
If you've been ignoring your calendar, you may have not realized that autumn began Sept. 23. We know it as the season between summer and winter, when days grow shorter, when liquidambar leaves turn red, and when the blanket flower lives up to its name. The blanket flower,...
A Gulf Fritillary, Agraulis vanillae, clings to a blanket flower, Gaillardia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Are You Ready for National Pollinator Week?
Nothing says National Pollinator Week more than a honey bee coated in pollen. Make mine yellow. Yellow pollen. There's plenty of time to prepare. National Pollinator Week is June 21-27. You can register your activities--make that "socially distant activities" to the official Pollinator Week...
Peek-a-bee! A honey bee, blanketed with pollen, forages on a blanket flower, Gaillardia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Up, up and away! A pollen-packing honey bee leaves the blanket flower, Gaillardia, taking the pollen with her. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Let's Hear It for the Bees and Beekeepers
Let's hear it for the honey bees. Right now they're scrambling to gather nectar and pollen from the blanket flower, Gaillardia. You could say they're blanketing the flower. When resources are scarce in the fall, the blanket flower, in the sunflower family Asteraceae, draws them in. The...
Two matched pairs of honey bees on a blanket flower, Gaillardia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Do Honey Bees Have Taste Buds?
You've seen honey bees nectaring on flowers. You've watched their proboscis (tongue) probing for nectar. Some linger quite awhile before they buzz off. Have you ever thought about this: Do they have taste buds? A colleague asked that question. In fact, it was his friend's nine-year-old son who...
Honey bees sipping nectar from a blanketflower (Gaillardia), while another bee buzzes in. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Find the Praying Mantis!
It's early evening and the bees are all over the blanket flower (Gaillardia). But wait, if you look closely, you'll see a tiny sticklike figure on top of a seed head. It's a predator on top his world, scanning the view, feeling the buzz and looking for dinner. The praying mantis looks too...
Find the praying mantis on the blanket flower (Gaillardia). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Praying mantis rotates his head, looking for prey. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
