Pollinators pile on milkweed on World Peace Wetland Prairie

Please click on images to ENLARGE view of gray hairstreak butterfly and other bugs and insects on milkweed on WPWP on August 6, 2009,

Gray hairstreak butterfly on rattlesnake master on August 4, 2009.

Please click on image to ENLARGE view of gray hairstreak butterfly (Strymon melinus) on rattlesnake master (Eryngium yuccifolium) near WPWP on Pinnacle Prairie on August 4, 2009.

Tiny yellow proves special when seen up close

Please click on image to ENLARGE view of tiny yellow flower on WPWP on August 2, 2009.

Wasps of many colors love Eryngium yuccifolium on the prairie on August 2, 2009

Please click on images to view wasp on Eryngium yuccifolium on August 2, 2009.

Tiny white beauties lost in the tall growth on WPWP on August 2, 2009

Please click on images to ENLARGE view of tiny white flowers on World Peace Wetland Prairie on August 2, 2009

American basketflower (Centaurea americana) is NOT a thistle

Please click on image to ENLARGE view of Centaurea americana, the American basketflower, incorrectly known to many as a star thistle.


In the photo below, please note the greenish bug on the basketflower. It is the same as the white bug on the basketflower in the preceding post.

Tiny creatures make nature area interesting. If you don't click to enlarge you won't really see the picture

Please click to ENLARGE July 31, 2009, photos of small things on World Peace Wetland Prairie.
The top photo below of a rattlesnake master in bloom and a wasp hanging below turns out to be about "Who's for supper?" when enlarged. Anyone know who is having supper?


The tiny white bug in the lower two photos was plucked off a basket flower.

Pollinators love swamp verbena on west side of World Peace Wetland Prairie

Please click on images to see at least three pollinators working swamp verbena on the west side of World Peace Wetland Prairie on July 31, 2009. Only the one in the middle closeup photo looks like the honeybees I sometimes accidentally stepped on with my bare feet during my Louisiana childhood. But the other two are as plentiful as the honeybees on prairie acreage hereabouts. Protecting such native plants is important to the pollinators on which we depend for a high percentage of our food! Want to help? Then please don't mow before November!

Same plant as below but photographed in daytime so that various stages are included on July 20, 2009, on Pinnacle Prairie before before heavy rain

Please click on these two images to see same flowering plant as in the preceding post but showing the yellow flower that is its moment of greatest glory. Someone please name it!

South Fayetteville prairie plants require help for specific identification

I need help finding name of this tiny plant.





Please click on lower images to ENLARGE VIEW OF white variety of rose pink gentian, Sabatia albiflora, on Pinnacle Prairie on July 29, 2009.