Helenium 'Mardi Gras' with its skirt-like bloom... Summer, 2009

An earlier post shows one of the many pollen gatherers that I so enjoyed watching collect pollen from these blossoms all summer long. The flower itself fascinates me because only a single row of anthers opens each day... providing a long period of pollen availability for each tiny blossom. (This image and the other images that will be included in my gallery show are in a set on Flickr that may be viewed as a slide show if you care to have a look.)

Helenium 'Mardi Gras' ... soaking wet with rain... and Hoverfly!

Was trying to capture these lovely wet flowers early this morning... the Hoverfly kept flitting into and out of the FOV and here he is roughly in focus in spite of my not even trying to capture him.