Ray's T for the D - Sisyrinchium pruinosum

Long, Crumby and me labored to build up populations of blue-eyed grass at the CB. Now, these days, at long last, we have a great many. We have two species, both S. pruinosum and S. ensigerum. The latter has undergone a name change, but we still refer to it as S. ensigerum.

Here’s how we went about acquiring our littlest irises, blue-eyed grass. Wherever we journeyed during the fading time of Hope Remains the season, we would be on the look out for blue-eyed grass. Once we espied some, we estimated how long it would take the developers to destroy that population. Then, we either saved those blue-eyed grasses on the spot, or saved them later.

Born again at the CB, our blue-eyed grasses, are fit subjects for ecological perusal, easily accessed. Which brings up the subject of pollinators in these parts during Hope Remains, the season. Seems like, relative to the available blossoms, the pollinators are seasonally sparse. For example, there are three fifties times a tousand or maybe two tousand of Oenothera speciosa flowers at the CB, but visually few diurnal pollinators. Such huge numbers are impossible to monitor given the talent available.

However, the blue-eyed grasses are way fewer. Few enough for Crumby and me to handily watch. And watch we have to see what pollinators show up.

Blue-eyed grasses open up late in the day once it starts to get hot. Given that, one would assume the pollinators are also of like habit. Yet, even when the flowers are ready, the pollinators are sparse. Finally though, we espied a bunch of potential pollinators on blue-eyed grass. One of those is this one, a petal eating beetle. Here that beetle is, dining on the petals but simultaneously rubbing its nasty little hiney in the pollen.