Author Archives: Zachary Huang

Spring flower 5: anemone flowers

科: 毛茛科 Ranunculaceae
属: 银莲花属Anemone
种: 希腊银莲 A. blanda
俗名 Balkan anemone,Grecian windflower, winter windflower
ZBAS* 6

The Greek anemone is a perennial plant with roots that blooms very early every spring. The flowers are charming, and the Latin word means blanda (anemo = wind). Although the name is windy, They are prefer to to grow in places with little wind. There are purple blue, white, and pink. After flowering, the leaves are gone (like the Aconite), but the roots are still there, and they bloom early the next spring. Like Aconite, it will develop into a large area by itself. They grow natively to the Caucasus and Turkey in southern Europe. Now it is also cultivated in the United States. Like the flowers of the Ranunculaceae mentioned earlier, these petal-like things are actually calyx. But this plant is not poisonous (finally!).

These photos of flowers were taken in the Beal Botanical Garden of our campus (Michigan State University). It was last Saturday (2019.4.6). Daniel asked me to try to see if some of his lenses were UV-lit and found that many bees were picking flowers. These flowers only have pollen and no nectar.

1. Purple and white flowers bloom together, the color of the camera is not completely right. Camera full-frame micro single (mirrorless) Sony A7ii, 24 megapixels, 50mm macro.

2. Still the same honeybee.

3. There is white pollen in the pollen basket.

4. This honeybee flew towards me.

5. It continues collecting powder.

6. There are about 5-6 honeybees collecting.

7. The color of this is pure blue. The top is fuchsia.

8. Empty. This pollen basket is basically empty. There is a little pollen.

9. I will show some photos, taken by Samsung S7 phones (12 megapixels) [9, 10, 11].

10. These flowers are lighter in color

11. Flying on white flowers.

12. The same flower looks like this in the bee horizon (visible minus red, superimposed with UV). The yellow we saw in the middle became dark green. The calyx next to it is light green. Dark colors indicate more UV absorption.

13. The sunflower is almost finished. There is still a little bit. I took a full picture of the insect horizon. Isn’t it more beautiful than we see? It is similar to the flower above: it is also green in the middle. But the calyx is yellower.