Summer Azure
so hot in michigan this summer that nothing is growing well in my gardens, and the bees and other bugs i like to photograph have been somewhere else. Finally had a cooler day of only 86 today and a summer azure was dancing on my favorite wild flower, pokeweed blossoms. Hands out of practice but caught a few decent shots. Not up to those taken in previous couple of years, but made my summer not quite all washed out.
as always, thanx for stopping by :)
peace,
pam
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| pokeweed bush |
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| pokeweed blossoms turning to green berries |
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| pokeweed berries turning to dark purple
It has simple leaves on green to red or purplish stems and a large white taproot. The flowers are green to white, followed by purple to almost black berries which are a food source for songbirds such as gray catbird, northern mockingbird, northern cardinal, and brown thrasher, as well as other birds and some small animals (i.e., to species that are unaffected by its mammalian toxins)... horses, sheep and cattle have been poisoned by eating fresh leaves or green fodder, and pigs have been poisoned by eating the roots...its significant toxicity and its risks to human and animal health are consistently reported, with the whole of the plant toxic and increasing in toxicity through the year, with children at particular risk of its very poisonous purple-red ripe fruit... (wiki)
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