The flowers of Greater and Common Knapweed are stunning on local grasslands at the moment - and the insects are loving it. Many types of bees and bugs can be seen gorging on the nectar of the attractive flower-heads, so engrossed that they often ignore the distraction of a large camera being thrust at them.
A large hoverfly perhaps?
The name Knapweed is interesting - as it's usually found on chalk, is the plant merely a pointer to the knapable flints that lie beneath it, or is there a closer link?
Get in there my son!
A small cluster of white knapweeds were seen today - an local aberation or an interloper species, I wonder?Knapweeds are part of the vast thistle family, and so is a relative of the Musk or Nodding Thistle, below.
3 comments:
Great post. Do you know the name of the beetle on picture 3? I took a similar picture of one on Knapweed by the Monument last week. The flowers make such a good setting for SIx-spot Burnets, Skippers and Marbled Whites etc, there are a real photographic prop!
Hi Steve, I found this one one of the BTCV sites:
Knapweed is also known as Black or Lesser Knapweed. The word 'knap' means 'knob' - "knobweed".
So I suppose it's from the flower head before it opens,#
Tony
Sorry Tony, I haven't tracked down that beetle yet.
Your discovery of the link between knap and knob seems to illustrate one of the other meanings of knap, per today's post.
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