AN INSECT DUPLEX AND SOME SOME ESCAPEES

YELLOW AND WHITE SWEET CLOVER

BUDDY AT THE BEACH

QUIET WATERS

GOLDENROD GALLS

Sunday, 9:00 AM.  73 degrees F, wind WNW, light.  The humidity is 68%, the sky partly cloudy, which is also what the barometer predicts.  I took Buddy to the beach this morning, he had a good run and a swim and I got sand between my toes.
    The hot, humid weather has broken and we have had warm but pleasant days.  It did not break, however,  before we had to purchase a window air conditioner for our garden level tourist apartment, which had become overly warm, humid, and stuffy.  We get along nicely without air conditioning but some of our guests do not.  Now that it is installed and operating it seems quite efficient, cycling on and off automatically, and not even doing much of that.
    Goldenrods, of which we have a number of species ( I think the one pictured is Canada goldenrod, Solidago canadensis, in the composite, AKA sunflower, family)  are always colorful when in bloom in late summer and fall, but right now they are interesting because of the characteristic insect galls on their stems.  The round ones pictured are caused by the larvae of a small fly.  If you cut one of the galls open you will usually find a tiny grub, which will feed until it pupates and emerges as an adult.  When it does so it leaves a distinctive round exit hole.  Each gall-producing insect is specific to a given species of plant, and I encourage those with more of an interest in the subject to consult  Google, there’s tons of information out there.  This goldenrod stem has two galls, one above the other, a veritable insect up-and-down duplex, with no rent to pay..
    Many of our roadside plants are escapees or relicts of agricultural fields.  Pictured are flowering stems of yellow and white sweet clover, which can grow to five or six feet.  They are quite invasive, but on the other hand they are also legumes, which enrich the soil by fixing atmospheric nitrogen.
    Political commentary: Never on Sunday.