The chaste trees (Vitex agnus-castus) at one of our local nurseries are blooming, and that’s always a great time to stop to take some photos. The reason I say that is the flowers are a really beautiful bluish purple and grow in tall racemes at the ends of the branches and off the tops of the trees. They are definitely a very striking tree and unfortunately they only flower for two to three weeks, so if you want photos, you have to take them pretty quickly.

The other reason I always like to stop when the chaste trees bloom is that there are always plenty of pollinators around. The majority are usually honey bees, but there can also be wasps, sweat bees, butterflies, and sometimes even hummingbirds. If I stop while the trees are covered in blossoms, I never know what I may be able to see.

When I stopped last week it was getting fairly late in the evening and the trees were not as heavily populated with pollinators as they are in the middle of the day. There were still quite a few honey bees and the occasional Ammophila wasp, but the only butterflies I saw were several Horace’s duskywings. There was also one dark swallowtail that I got just a glimpse of, but not even enough of a glimpse to try to identify it. I’m hoping that I can get back out there again this week at an earlier time, and maybe see a bigger variety of insect life. Heck, maybe even a spider or two, too.