Dandelions

plump bees twirling on small and humble blossoms like hippopotami pirouetting on a lily pads.

We have so many dandelions in our lawn that our neighbours' fret and beg us to mow our lawn before we contaminate their lawns with the weeds. Who can blame them for their weed angst? We have more dandelions than grass. If you can have a "pride of lions" then we must have a "prairie of dandelions," a fact that has not gone unnoticed by our local bees who flock to our plentiful weeds.

"May I have this dance?" asks a hopeful bee.

"Why yes," is the dandelion's reply as its tall and slender stem then bends under the ungainly weight of the bee as the the two dance a bumbling pas de deux. The bee rides the dandelion in a graceful arc --- Doooown -- until dandelion head nearly touches the ground and then springs back -- UP -- as the bee hops off to find its next dancing partner. Waltzing dandelion-bee couples can be seen by the dozens all across my lawn each summer day: plump bees twirling on small and humble blossoms like hippopotami pirouetting on a lily pads.

One summer the wasps were numerous and nasty. We erected a 10 foot square tent (nylon roof, 4 screen sides, and no floor) so we could picnic outside without harassment from the striped snipers. At the end of the summer, when we folded up our tent, we discovered a perfect square of grass in the middle of our dandelion prairie. Every dandelion had disappeared inside our tent footprint! Ruling out differences in rainfall and sun exposure, we determined the difference between the survival outside and the disappearance of dandelions inside our tent was that we had inadvertently screened out visiting bees along with the annoying wasps.

Without the bees, the dandelions simply vanished, dramatic evidence of the interdependent web of life. I don't know whether to be grateful for  this new found, pesticide-free method of weed control or to sit in awe of the fine-tuned relationships between species that abound in Nature.
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Photo credits: Photos by Jessica at Oceanwood.

Oceanwood Chronicles, copyright 2009 - Jessica at Oceanwood. Creative commons attribution, non-commercial sharing only (translation: feel free to quote me in context or use this entry but please always credit me for my work, thanks.) http://oceanwood.blogspot.com/