Wildflowers and the insects who love them

Thanks to Teh Google, I've learned a whole lot about Mirabilis nyctaginea, the wild four-o-clock, since I first noticed them the other day. I know that they are tramps who hopped a ride on a freight train some years ago -- their native range is Texas to Saskatchewan and apparently points west.

I know that their little flowers open up in the afternoon, and that they release a fragrance at dusk to attract night-pollinating insects. I know that the ones that were pollinated close up by 7:00 a.m. but that the ones that weren't pollinated stay open till 11:00. I don't know, though, why in the afternoon/evening the flowers are small and wee, and deep pink, and by the next afternoon there are some remaining flowers that are a sort of wilted cream color -- and much larger. Perhaps some seed collection will be called for, and some closer observation in the privacy of my backyard. Or, since they're perennials with big ol' roots, perhaps I'll dig some up. I can't imagine that anyone would mind -- they're an invasive thug.

I also learned that there's one species of insect -- Catorhintha mendica Stal -- pictured here, about the size of a lightning bug and looking a bit like something that might be on a cucumber vine. Apparently their only food is the wild four-o-clock. They weren't exactly overrunning the stand that I saw, but they also weren't exactly rare. Just hard to snap with my point and shoot. If I plant a few at home I wonder if the little buggies will come along for the ride...

After our big vacation I am settling back, reluctantly, into my regular life. The urge for growing space is hard upon me right now, helped along by finding that there are a lot of abandoned vacation homes up there, on the market in the crummy economy. Nice little one-storey places on a few acres for not much more than we paid for this place. Roy is feeling it too, and we've agreed to think it over for the next few months. We always have a case of "want to move there" when we come back from vacation but it usually goes away. This time, though, the hangover is lasting longer.

Out back we have Big Birdseed Germination! The little creeps are splashing their seed with mad abandon and not going down to the ground to feed. So we have what looks like a stand of crabgrass but is probably a carpet of young millet. What to do? Right now it's a patch that could be covered with an opened sheet or two of newspaper. I think we can deal with it.

My Vacation, Part 7 of 9 -- Monday, July 27, 2009

Time to start retracing our steps. We'd both had miserable nights in our damp Ox Yoke Inn room, so we left as soon as possible and headed back to Wellsboro, where we had breakfast at the Wellsboro Diner. I had three eggs up, toast and coffee. Roy had two eggs up, sausage patties and coffee. The diner had cleverly located its rest rooms so that one had to traverse ye olde gifte shoppe to get there, but we both managed to resist its blandishments.


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