Phytolacca americana 2, Pokeweed flowers, Howard County, MD, Helen Lowe Metzman

Pokeweed. Spring greens to many southerners ... at least in the old days. I still eat some if I have my act together when they are growing (look up how to prep them). This is a beautiful plant, and should be a feature in any garden that has room. It is moderately attractive to the halictids (particularly Augochlora pura ) but it just has lovely foliage right through winter. Here are some flower shots by Helen Lowe Metzman showing that there is a lot going on in even simple flowers. Its as if they had centuries to develop them or something. Photography Information: Canon Mark II 5D, Zerene Stacker, Stackshot Sled, 65mm Canon MP-E 1-5X macro lens, Twin Macro Flash in Styrofoam Cooler, F5.0, ISO 100, Shutter Speed 200 USGSBIML Photoshopping Technique: Note that we now have added using the burn tool at 50% opacity set to shadows to clean up the halos that bleed into the black background from "hot" color sections of the picture.