Jun 24 2008
A Gift for My Eyes, or a Landing Strip for Insects?
Is the pattern on the above azalea petal akin to flagmen at an airport, signaling insects down the runway and into the center parking spot?
I can appreciate the delicate coloring of the flower without deluding myself that Gawd created it for me and my kind. The flower exists for itself, the coloring, pattern, and pollen/nectar booty having evolved to entice pollinators into doing their thing.
Although the flower may exist in the “garden” of Earthly flora (a vastly larger garden than the Lunar and Martian dirt patches), it isn’t my garden. I’m just one of a mind-boggling number of species that bumble around in it.
