Spiky, sticky, and yellow

 Gumweed. Just gumweed, closing down at the end of a warm day.

Grindelia stricta. Dunes, Oyster Bay. The white blobs are latex, the gum that gives the plant its name; very sticky!

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Grindelia, hierba de goma; una planta muy pegajosa, esta creciendo en las dunas cerca de la playa en Oyster Bay. Los botones producen latex, que le da su nombre "hierba de goma".

White gum, yellow petals, blue-black spider

It's gumweed (Grindelia stricta) season again. The dunes and the meadow at Oyster Bay are bright with all their yellow blooms.

And more, about to burst into flower.

The white stuff is glue. Very sticky. It doesn't hold back the petals when they flare out, though. The little white critters are whiteflies.

Half opened. With a blue-black spider.

I hadn't seen the spider until I looked at the photos. In the field, I'm too busy trying to focus on a petal swaying in the wind to see all the details.

I've never seen a spider this black here before. The legs are pale, and there's a brown patch on the cephalothorax. I can't identify the spider, so I'll send it in to BugGuide. They're good; they even identified my newborn spiderlings!

Here's the spider, cropped out of the photo above.