One of the great glories of late summer and early autumn is this the purple bindweed.
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Somehow relegated to the category of weeds this regal velvet blossom belies her name as she gracefully adorns every tree and hedgerow upon the mountain.
We may be entranced by its delicate beauty, to the insect though, those faint lines upon the petals act as a beacon, directing them straight to the sweet centre of nectar.
This magnificent flower is another of the mainstays of the autumnal ecology. All around the mountain butterflies and other nectar feeders have timed their emergence to meet the opening of the late season flowerers.
The one cannot exist without the other and both have waited upon the rains to release the latency of life after the great summer drought.
The autumn is a soft time hereabouts, bathed in warm sunshine the moist earth erupts with abundance and the wheel slowly tuns once more.
Photo: Convolvulus on the mountain. Courtesy of the author.