Red Basil

A honey bee (Apis mellifera) is feeding on the purple basil flowers.

My mum keeps a large specimen of red basil on her front porch. When in bloom it drenches the air with its aromatic fragrance and reliably offers loads of purple flowers for nectar feeding insects. Therefore it is a convenient spot for capturing nice images of bees and butterflies. The other day I spotted a male blue (family: Lycaenidae, subfamily: Polyommatinae) among all the honey bees and I loved the contrasts of colour and shapes it provided:

At some point I noticed some turmoil in the shrub and I came to witness a dramatic fight scene within the flowers: A European paper wasp (Polistes dominula) had attacked a feeding honey bee and they wrestled for their lives while hanging on a single leg from the blossoms. Both are capable of employing deadly stings, however a few moments later the wasp darted off with its prey.

A European paper wasp (Polistes dominula) attacking a nectar feeding honey bee (Apis mellifera).

Tip: Not only the leaves of red basil are edible but also the flowers. They give a nice colourful and aromatic touch to salads, sweet desserts and even drinks (e.g. G&T). Try it out!

My mum 😉

I Heart Harz

Every now and then I need to escape the urban hustle of the city (well, as far as you can find that in Brunswick) and dive into the woods of the Harz mountains. The monoculture of fast growing pine trees has faced a major decline due to a combination of storms, droughts and pests in recent years. For a while the forest offered a sad and depressing view of dry and dead trees. However, new trees are emerging between the withered tree trunks, slowly but surely. The forest is now largely left to its own natural progression resulting in a more divers species composition with a much larger portion of deciduous trees. This plant community is also thought to be better adapted to different pressures by pests and climate changes. Additionally the expansive clearings offer habitat for a multitude of often threatened plant and animal species.

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The Spider’s Meadow

There is a large meadow in the Harz mountains just between Molkenhaus and the Ecker valley. It has a very characteristic flora and fauna. It is fun to walk through it at different times of the year because the species composition of flowers in bloom and active insects changes distinctively. These fotos were taken last week in the middle of July.

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The plentitude of insects flying, jumping and crawling through this meadow provides a rich menu for predators. One very common and noticeable of them is Aculepeira ceropegia (German: „Eichblatt-Radspinne“). Easily identified by the oak-leaf-shaped pattern on its abdomen.