As we begin to head into summer our native plantlife continues to change. In the spring the southern beeblossom, also known as biennial guara (Oenothera guara), focuses it’s energies on growing taller (it can reach up to six feet or so high), but in the late spring, as things like Drummond’s phlox and Carolina jessamine are fading away, other things, including beeblossom, begin to flower (in south Florida, it actually flowers all year round). Although many people look on these plants as useless weeds, they really do have pretty flowers, they are just very small. As you might guess from the name, these flowers are very appealing to many small pollinators, including bees. But bees are far from the only small pollinators that love these flowers. Almost any time that I stop to look at them, there are carpenter ants somewhere on the plant near the blooms and buds. In this photo there is also some sort of whitish colored, very small fly on one of the buds. I also often see wasps, especially paper wasps, moths, and small butterflies. The flowers are really too small for most of the larger pollinators, but hey, the little things have to eat, too! Right?