I cropped a photo Gregg took of this bee. The eyes fascinated me.
The bee is enjoying the Autumn Sage. I checked with Google and it tells me that this is a male Eastern Carpenter Bee. Females of this species have entirely black eyes. Males also have a white patch on their face, in contrast to the female's solid black face. Male Eastern Carpenter Bees are not aggressive. They are defending their territory by hovering but cannot sting.
We had a carpenter bee bore holes in our letterbox post, and also a few bore holes on our old wooden deck. We treated the post and now we have a piece of modern art/sculpture, until we can replace it. When we had the new non-wood deck built (made out of Trex), we saw one hovering for a couple of weeks before it gave up. It was interesting behavior. This is a website of all the different kinds of bees. It has advertisements but gives a lot of information.
In today's post I share the last of the photographs from the garden. Part 1 and Part 2 was the more exciting part of the day but as well as getting our exercise, taking photos of flowers (and bees and butterflies, moths and other insects) is what I love to do when visiting. They are our constants and were taken in between our other events. The birds were scarce because of the time of day perhaps. We arrived mid-morning. I didn't even hear them.
Not so long ago they opened the Moon Gate area. It is slowly taking shape and has a new brick walkway and new plantings. I look forward to seeing how it progresses next Spring.
I found these very interesting. They are called Leopard Plant and are non-toxic to humans and pets, and wildlife I'm assuming. When it blooms it produces yellow daisy-like flowers. Its leaves become spotted and its thought that this is how it got its name by botanists back in the day, likening them to leopards. A very hardy plant!
Red Spider Lily. All parts are toxic to humans and pets. It is native to China, Korea, Japan and Nepal. I have provided links on all the flowers, and you can click on their names to see more info.
In the next photo is a cluster of Jerusalem Artichokes flowers. I remember my mother buying the roots from the greengrocer, another childhood memory, and I always thought they were very tasty. I haven't seen them around here. According to the information at the link, they are similar in texture to water chestnuts with a nutty flavor. They can be boiled, mashed, roasted like potatoes or eaten raw. I seem to remember mother roasting them like a potato. I never knew they had such a beautiful flower until I took this photo and identified them.
The purple flowers are Mealy Cup Sage and the yellow are Tall Tickseed.
Both very much enjoyed by the bees.
How do wild bees carry pollen? Click here to find out if you would like to know more. The bees hind legs have what they call pollen baskets or corbiculae. They are a specialized feature on female worker bees used to carry pollen back to the hive for food. Lots more information at the previous link but also an amazing amount online.
I'm not sure when we will go back to the garden before everything goes to sleep for the winter, but I was happy for the chance to see these while visiting today.
(you can click on all the flower names as I have linked to other websites that have more information)
I have mentioned the other flowers in the next photo, except for the New England Asters. I neglected to get any close-ups of those.
Mexican Honeysuckle
(All the website links have better photos.)
That's all for this visit.
Thanks for looking and
I hope you all have a great
day.
Beautiful photos, Denise. That bee 🐝 is fascinating. ❤️
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