For Madeleine in May

My niece Madeleine is attending her commencement exercises this weekend in Virginia and will be awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree. I'd hoped to have some nice pictures from the garden to post in her honour, but although we have jumped from winter right into summer weather over the last two weeks, the plants have been slow catching up and the last few days have been so windy that only blurs and blasted petals can be captured. Instead I'll post some of my favorite pictures that her aunt took on Vancouver Island over the Easter break. I'll start with two British Columbia natives: the fawn lily above (Erythronium revolutum), a native but doing well in Butchart Gardens, and the salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis) endemic in a coastal rainforest patch below.

One native in a garden and one in a forest seems too balanced, so here are two English Daisies (Bellis perennis) from Butchart Gardens. In its escaped, naturalized form, English Daisy is often called by the less prosaic 'Lawndaisy', and for those that like their lawns a solid green or their parks to have only pre-European native plants, it is a noxious weed in both North America and Australia. It reverts to a simple white flower head with far fewer ray flowers in the wild and is very common in Victoria, BC. I still remember my disappointment on learning that the pretty white daisy wasn't native, but a weed in Victoria, Australia.

Well Madeleine I hope the thunderstorms hold off until after Commencement is over, that you have a grand day,  and that you do well by your BA. And, since no HBG post is complete without a bug, here's a mayfly subimago perched on my finger to wish you luck in your new life.