Insects were slightly more abundant today: I probably saw three flies and I think a spider scuttled under a leaf. Dandelion buds are developing with characteristic speed and I was struck at how little regard we pay these strange objects that look like cephalopods on stalks (see below). They will turn to bright yellow flowers very quickly and then to dandelion clocks, so there isn't long to enjoy them. The buds often open overnight as they change to the completely different sun disc. This fades quite quickly and close up to another bud-like phase. At this point the flower stalk lengthens with remarkable rapidity, sometimes reaching three times the height it was when the flower was open in the course of one day. This raises the inflorescence above any unearby grasseses so the seeds , which appear very quickly, can float away unimpeded. from the beautiful geometry of the dandelion clock..
After the seeds have floated away a scar-studded bun-shaped cushion, this receptacle, remains for some time while the flower bearing stalk lengthens for no reason I can grasp. This change to completely different forms propelled by intricate and coordinated cell pressures of a single reproductive apparatus I find quite a mysterious phenomenon. There is much about the natural world and its phenology which seems beyond our brain to understand. Here is a big 'why ?'.
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