This shaggy member
of the daisy family, with its beautifully geometric spiral pattern of
unopened central florets, originates from the Himalayas. In my garden it's a
great attraction to bees, that appreciate the long period of pollen production
that results from the sequential opening of all those florets.
Drone flies, like the one below, are also attracted to this flower, visiting to feed on the nectar.
The most intriguing visitor for pollen collection is the leaf cutter bee. This uses a brush of long orange hairs on the underside of its abdomen to collect pollen, and in the final picture you can see how it walks around the circle of open florets, sweeping up pollen with those hairs as it goes.
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