Spring brings a spectrum of colour as flowers burst with life.
The skies around here display a spectrum as well. If you didn’t see my video on Ignace Outposts’ YouTube channel, FaceBook or on The Weather Network (they insert a commercial, sorry)…
just soak in the snapshot below (straight out of the camera).
Getting messy! The capsules continue to burst open with seed until every stalk is thick with white. Note to self: next time don’t wear dark clothing!
Speaking of dark clothing…of course, Lindor was along. He is a chocolate lab, dark brown coat. It was warm. He’d wandered off. It was getting dark. I called him back and opened the vehicle door for him. He jumped in inadvertantly splattering mud all over! Both he and my vehicle had a refreshing bath when we got home!
This is when the magic happens!
Apparently, each capsule contains about 300 to 400 tiny brown seeds; 80,000 per plant! The seeds have long, silky hairs to catch the wind. I was so fortunate to find these plants at this stage on a calm, warm day. The heat of the earth combined with the disturbance Lindor caused moving through the brush ahead of me, created an updraft of air that propelled thousands of the seeds up from the plants. It was like watching snow fall in reverse! It was an incredible sight.
Even when every last blossom is gone, these plants tint the fields with pink.
As the fireweed blossoms continue to open from the bottom up, the lower flowers die off leaving pink spikes.
I wasn’t the only one intrigued with the curly stigmas…
It was fascinating to watch the bees gathering pollen. Most bees seemed to bounce from blossom to blossom, making it very hard to photograph them. This big guy (below) contentedly hung out on one plant the whole time I was there.
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been observing and photgraphing the stages of fireweed development. Also known as Great Willow-herb, it is one of the first plants to regenerate a burned area of forest. It gently colours pink the shoulders of our highways through late summer into fall. In the next few posts. I’ll be sharing the many changes this plant undergoes.
These images were captured in the last week of July. Pinkish-white spikes begin to appear from the greenery. Soft pink blossoms open from the bottom up.
Karen Greaves Photography & Fibre Art 