The humble potato does have pretty flowery, albeit a little small.
Only after I downloaded the picture into my PC have I noticed the hiding Colorado potato beetle. Damn. I have thought I nabbed them all. Time to go out with a jar with a few drops of acetone again. Unfortunately I doubt the beetles will listen to reason, it is either them or me.
Oh and btw, if you ever heard or read that in former Soviet bloc the propaganda was saying that the CIA was intentionally dropping the beetles from airplanes on crops in order to starve us, it is true. It was taught in schools until the end of the cold war. We were told this as late as in 1980’s. Until today when someone says the colloqual term “americký brouk” (american beetle), most people will know what the talk is about.
©Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
Colorado beetles are the scourge of a good potato crop. :( Here, the colloquial term is the ever-creative ‘potato beetle’. I’m sad they have such a terrible (well-earned, though) reputation, because they look so jaunty and stylish.
Humble potato, noble bee!
My Norwegian ancestors and my Irish ancestors both came to America because of the potato famines. You know -- starving refugee migrants, that kind of thing. But I still believe potatoes were intelligently designed by god as a vehicle for butter and salt.
@Marcus, that is not a bee, but a bee mimicking hover fly.
@charly, #3:
Thanks! Now that I look at the “bee” again, I can see that the abdomen is definitely not bee-like. I would never have noticed, however, if you hadn’t told me it was a hover fly!
Oh and btw, if you ever heard or read that in former Soviet bloc the propaganda was saying that the CIA was intentionally dropping the beetles from airplanes on crops in order to starve us, it is true.
I have to research that one! Fascinating.
The US also appears to have used similar bio-warfare attacks against North Korea, although there appears to have been an effective disinformation campaign/cover-up to the point where I’m not sure what I think happened.
As a note, if they did it, it was probably in hope of causing a potato famine but failing to understand that the potato famine was a political effect of capitalism and colonialism more than it was anything to do with the potato blight. There were plenty of edible potatoes to go around, they were just being shipped to England and the bad crops were used as a means of levering farmers off their lands. In other words, the famine wouldn’t have probably accomplished anything to increase misery -- they should have exported capitalism, which is deadlier.
@Marcus, that is not a bee, but a bee mimicking hover fly.
Curses, foiled again!
@Crip Dyke #4
The abdomen is not bee-like on close inspection, but whenever unsure the real giveway are the wings and the head.
Flies have only two wings, bees have four.
Flies have two tiny short antenae between two almost semi-spherical eyes that cover nearly the whole head, whereas bees have larger antenae with a right angle bend in them and smaller eyes with a lot of space between them because they are positioned more to the sides of the head.
I remember seeing blue or purple potato flowers as well. I love the play of the sunlight on the leaves in the picture.
Here the Colorado potato beetles are trying the enter the country over the southeastern border, from Russia, but they’ve been hindered by both eradication campaigns and the fact that winters are often a bit too harsh for them.
A Finnish saying: Kukkiihan se perunakin!
That is “Even the potato (peruna) does have flowers/blooms!” That means that you don’t have to be perfect or make it your purpose in life to be beautiful outside and there’s still beauty in you.
I’ve eaten the first new potatoes of this year (the skin was fairly easy to brush off before cooking), with butter and halloumi fried with new onions. They were good.
There must be quite an advantage to looking like a bee. I’ll bet that beetle wishes he looked like something else…
ice swimmer one of the varieties we are growing this year has purple flowers, still with the bright yellow centres, very striking.