[Originally published at iFieldnotes.org]
Author: Daniel Hartley
Date: Monday, 12 February 2024
Time: 15:00-16:00
Weather: Sunny 16-18°C
Habitat: City park
Velvet groundsel is native to Central America but it flourishes in Lisbon's parks. The visitors to its flowers are numerous and native.
In mid afternoon the yellow flowered bushes receive direct sunlight. Western honey bees are everywhere, too numerous to count. Drone flies and red admirals are also frequent visitors.
There is a contingent of large carpenter bees which can also be seen hovering around the dead branches and hollow trunks of Judas trees and European hackberries. They have been here every year at this time since I first visited eight years ago.
The pollen basket on the hind legs of female western honey bees are clearly visible.
The bushes are almost three metres in height, above average for the species. The leaves are the size of a hand and the inflorescences are formed by panicles similar in size to the leaves but slightly convex.
The flowers do not attract everyone. Speckled woods - the most abundant butterfly in the park - appear to ignore them and I observed one large white pass over the bushes and then return without showing any interest. I have observed both of these species on plants with white flowers.
The yellow colouring of groundsel flowers is due to carotenoids.
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