An unintended recipient

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Near the base of the poverty weed from which a yellowjacket chased away a red admiral on December 13th, there was a drying colony of doveweed, Croton monanthogynus, a low-growing relative of the woolly croton you saw seven weeks ago. Because of the doveweed’s position close to the ground and because of gravity, much of the seed-bearing fluff that the breeze blew off the poverty weed ended up covering the doveweed, where it seemed to do no good to either species. But that’s the short-term view; eventually the seeds of both plants will find their way to the ground.

© 2012 Steven Schwartzman