Surprises

Many interesting things can be found by observing blemishes or odd growths on plants. Here we have an Orange Coneflower that seems to have taken a liking to this Wingstem. Add a partially eaten leaf to the mix and this becomes something you might want to take a closer look at.

If left undisturbed, most plants grow into their classic text book forms. When they don’t, it’s often the result of interaction with some small animal. It looks as though the leaf eater has fled, but here’s something sitting on the flower.

Looks like we’ve found a spider and by spider standards, quite a lovely specimen. Now we can see the web holding the two plants together. Apparently there was no mutual attraction. This seems to be a forced bonding.

This is one of the larger orb weavers. This species can occasionally be found hanging in the middle of the web, but it prefers to wait in a little hideaway off to the side. This is a common spider that builds a large orb web. Next time you find a big empty web, take a careful look around the edges for one of these spiders.