Saturday, June 13, 2020

Too bad the spiders were so tiny

And more pink:

I picked these up in a garage sale 4 years ago. They keep flowering in their pot every spring.

Sea pink, Armeria maritima. Aka thrift, sea thrift. 

It grows wild near the shore, on cliffs and in sandy soil. It doesn't mind a bit of salt. There are three sub-species growing here in BC. I think this may be ssp. californica, because the leaves, seen under a loupe, are smooth, hairless.

In their full-sun spot on the steps. Spiders not visible.

(I'm slightly crazy; I wasn't sure about the sub-species, so I had to go out and bring in the pot to examine it. It's the middle of the night, and I disturbed three miniature spiders, yellow and black, in their webs on the stems of the flowers, so tiny that I had to examine them under the loupe; even with the normal 10x magnifying lens, they were still just tiny dots, and the webs were invisible. I took them outside again, very carefully, so as not to disturb the webs.)

~~~~~~~~~

Otras flores color de rosa. Estas son clavelinas de mar, que compré en una venta de garage hace 4 años. Cada primavera vuelven a florecer.

Crecen en la orilla del mar, en tierras arenosas o entre rocas. No les hace daño un poco de sal.

Su nombre científico es Armeria maritima, y tienen tres sub-especies aquí en BC. Creo que este es ssp. californica, porque las hojas, vistas con una lupa fuerte, son lisas, sin pelos.

Y soy un poco loca; no sabía por cierto a cual de las sub-especies pertenecía, así que salí, a media noche y en calcetines, para traerme la maceta a donde la podría examinar encima de mi escritorio. Y porque es noche, había tres arañitas, arañas tan miniaturas que las tuve que examinar con la lupa. Bajo mi lente de aumento normal, a 10x, todavía eran puntitos pequeños. Con la lupa más fuerte, se veía que eran amarillas con una flecha negra en el abdomen, y también se veían su telaraña, que no se notaba con la lente normal.

Una vez examinadas las hojas, llevé la maceta afuera con mucho cuidado para no sacudir las arañitas en su sitio.

1 comment:

  1. Lovely to see these. Where I lived in Dorset there were acres of it (we called it 'thrift' - I think it is the same flower) so I'm pleased to see an 'old friend'.

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