Flowers (EXPANDED, with bees too).

January 7th, 2026

I decided instead of going on a hike this morning to go on a very long walk, I walked just over 5 miles, which ended up taking just about 2 hours, and stayed around my neighborhood.

Pretty much immediately I saw this bee pollinating a Bermuda Buttercup, the invasive flower that I mentioned in my last blog. I started thinking dang, all these stupid scientists always talking about all these invasive species, we just get pretty cool flowers and beautiful bees on them.

But then, I started seeing them literally everywhere. Photos above include on someone’s front yard, in various patches of dirt, and I believe the last one it’s growing and covering up some other plant that was just doing his own thing.

I mean, yeah, they are truthfully outstanding flowers, like it was such a great sight seeing the bee inside of it, they're like a perfect sized bowl for any bee to go in there and get some pollen or whatever, but I’m under the belief that all flowers ARE created equal.

So obviously, I’d be perfectly happy with just a few of these little Bermuda Buttercups, or BB's, minding their own business, but the way that they go about reproducing is with large amounts of underground bulbs that are hard to find, and even if you do clear them out, if you have even 1 bulb left it can spread more. These flowers are taking up spots for other flowers, which is unfortunate. So I take back what I said about these guys being just “chill invasive” or whatever, I still think they are cool, and I know they aren’t being mean on purpose or whatever but, they really aren’t good at all.

ANYWAYS, I do have some fun things that I saw on my walk today as well.

The first of which was this big orange flower, which is called a Gazania, and while native to South Africa, this plant is actually so invasive that it is illegal to buy or sell it in Southern Australia. I only just learned this after writing “fun things," but regardless, it’s a pretty flower, huge too, I saw it from super far away! (I don’t think it is nearly as much of a problem in SoCal as the Bermuda Buttercup, if at all)

Bee Video

This is a Blood Trumpet Vine, with a bee on it. If you click the video link, you can actually watch him come out of it, unlucky for you, I actually saw him go in and he climbed ALL THE WAY to the bottom of the hole. Nose deep. Didn't record it, or maybe I did and am just not uploading it.

This bee x flower collaboration was without a doubt my favorite thing that I saw today, unfortunately this plant is also potentially invasive, BUT, I care less about this one because it’s a vine. It grows on various trees, buildings, etc… and develops those outstanding looking flowers that you can see in the photo. I would have to guess it’s at least 4-5 inches deep.

Lastly this is a Beach Evening Primrose, or Camissoniopsis cheiranthifolia, which is a California native plant that grows on beaches. These are very interesting since they are a type of evening primrose; these flowers close during the day, and reopen during the night in order to attract nighttime pollinators like moths.

I’m not quite sure why they were open around 12:30pm, when these photos were taken, maybe I caught a picture of one of the more “slow” flowers. I bet the other flowers make fun of him. Stupid idiot flower.

I also wanna add I totally saw like a bunch of closed ones, but I didn’t really realize that’s why they were closed until I looked it up, so I didn't care at the time to take a photo. Here’s a photo I took of one that I believe is in the process of closing, in addition to that I believe that the reason for the pedals curling around the tips in the yellow photo might also be due to the plant closing up for the day.

I can’t find any photos online of the Beach Evening Primrose closed, but here is something from the Montana Natural History Center of an Evening Primrose going from closed to open. Super cool.

Thanks for reading my blog.

James