During the summer and well into the fall most of the sunny areas along central Florida’s roads are populated by Leavenworth’s tickseed flowers (Coreopsis leavenworthii). These perennial plants are a common wildflower and are also used as an ornamental around here. They’re so popular that the genus Coreopsis as a whole is the Florida state flower. Not only are the flowers really pretty and fairly long lasting, but they are also a great attractant for pollinators of all sorts. Back in July, I wrote a post about stopping to photograph some of the flowers and ending up staying for over an hour photographing pollinators, too. Most of them were larger bees, wasps, and some butterflies, but there are small ones, too. In fact, I actually stopped at that patch several times, and on one of those trips, I found this little beetle crawling on the petal of one flower to get to the center in order to have a nectar meal. I had forgotten about these photos and happened on them earlier today when I was wondering what to post today. That’s one reason that it’s a good idea to look through older images once in awhile. You never know what hidden gems you may turn up.