An autumn flower medley

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Written by

Scientist and artist exploring the beauty and magic of nature

1 year ago

In community: Nature(0f4f)

Topics: Photography, Nature, Flowers

This title is somewhat deceptive since while the photos are taken in autumn, most of them are actually summer flowers that ended up blooming late. A clear example is this cute small wild violet.

The next flower looks like a daisy just that it was huge. It was covering half of my palm, and the plant itself was quite tall, reaching well above my knees.

Next to the oversized daisy was a slightly smaller pure-yellow relative of daisies.

We tend to call these daisy-like blossoms flowers, but did you know that actually, the petals surround the central yellow part of the blossom which consists of tens of little flowers? Look carefully!

The next flower resembles dandelions, but it has fewer petals and it’s smaller.

Let's now switch the colour palette. This pretty Campanula patula has an intense purple colour. Most other bellflowers in my country are more bluish-violet. [1]

And the last photo for today is a bee-like insect collecting pollen. It was not a real bee. Its eyes are bigger and have a different structure. Also, the shape of its wings reveals that it is a fly.

There are many insects that are bee lookalikes. The most obvious ones (other than wasps) are hoverflies. They are usually smaller, and the body is flatter. Also, the yellow colour of bees is slightly orangeish compared to a hoverfly’s bright bands. I looked up online some other critters that pretend to be bees. I was fascinated by the bee beetle [2]. I had never seen such a creature before.

References:

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campanula_patula

[2] https://friendsoftheearth.uk/bee-count/insects-that-look-like-bees