Closed Bottle Gentian flower, my favorite prairie forb. It never opens, and bumblebees are the only pollinator strong enough to muscle their way inside. This is a Golden Northern Bumblebee pollinating the hard way.
Lake County, IL 9.6.25
#citizensforconservation #gentianaandrewsii #bombusfervidus
Bee alighting on yellow tithonia anthers, about half a semi sphere of which occupy the bottom half and left corner of the photo, with red orange petals occupying about a third of the photo above that, and a neutral, dark grey filling the remainder of the photo on top. The yellow bee with black eyes, legs antennae and bottom, fills the photo from its antennae to the left, to one rear leg extending down, to the tip of its left wing, parallel to the top/bottom, extending to the right edge of the frame. The bees proboscis is extended, about to reach through the yellow anthers to nectar the tithonia.
Golden northern bumblebee
(Bombus fervidus) / tithonia
September in Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood.🐝
#pollinators #bumblebees #bees #nature #bugs #insects #bombus #macro #photography #flowers #gardens #gardening #andersonville #chicago #bombusFervidus #wildLife #nativeBees
