Perhaps it is the gardener in me, but whenever I see pictures of Covid-19 on the news, it looks a bit like a flower; or more accurately, a large ball with a lot of tiny little red and yellow flowers coming out of it. It is similar in a way, to alliums. If you have ever looked at the elongated blossom on a butterfly bush or a lilac, you will see that there are several diminutive blossoms growing in a cluster that looks like one big bloom. These are perfect for butterflies, to extend their long proboscis into each little blossom, in order to extract the nectar. Umbels, like Queen Anne’s lace, parsley, carrot, dill, caraway, and fennel have flowers that are shaped somewhat like a parasol. They have hundreds of miniature flowers emerging from a central core. The proper scientific name and the family into which these lacy florets have been designated, is Apiaceae or, Umbelliferae. They are the ideal size and shape on which butterflies can land and partake of the sustenance they provide. If you want to have butterflies visit your garden, provide plants belonging to the umbel family.
Nature has designed the perfect food sources and habitat for every insect and the predator to keep them from becoming invasive. The insect eating birds help to keep the insect population in balance. The predatory birds like hawks, along with snakes and some mammals, keep the bird populations in check. In most cases the predator is larger in size than its prey; but it has taken a microscopic predator to slow our human growth. Every life form has come into existence to serve a purpose. I see Covid-19 as the seed, to the flowering of our humanity.
