Monday, June 3, 2019

The Ants in France Live Mainly on the Plants

I had a conversation with one of our site visitors yesterday about flowers... I mentioned that she had missed the blooming of the lilacs by a couple of weeks, and she wistfully mused, "I wish the flowers could last all year long." I noted that I loved the sense of succession, the changing of the various botanical sensations. I love the daffodils and crocuses in late March and throughout April, as well as the wild redbud blossoms. They give way to the cherry blossoms, wisteria, and lilac. Now, it's the locust blossoms and the showy peony flowers:




Is that color not outrageous? Of course, with peonies, you get the ants, which are attracted to the nectaries the buds feature much like the trumpet vine does. The vampire hell ants are long extinct, and the current ants tend to prefer heavenly food sources.

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