Euphorbia cyathophora

Euphorbiaceae

Been hobbled by back trouble this week, but with the help of Wild Poinsettia growing alongside a parking lot (minimal hobbling required), John’s photography, and Wikipedia we are off and running.

Wild Poinsettia is not really Poinsettia that is wild, although they are related.  Around South Florida the species is so variable some botanists have divided it into more than one species. For example, the leaves range in shape from grasslike to broad and lobed. 

The flowers are not really flowers exactly.  Without sweating the boring details, the red parts are markings on leaves.  The individual flowers are tiny, separate male and female.  The yellow nectar glands, such as where the wasp in the photo is drinking, are technically on leaves, not flowers.

A flower fancier must wonder what pollinates such a system.   Either noodling around on the internet or wandering the hills and dales, you can spot a variety of occasional visitors from hummingbirds to butterflies,  but I believe paper wasps do the heavy lifting.

The wasps can come and go from the Wild Poinsettia “flower” like an assembly line, each stopping for a few seconds, then off it goes, with the next wasp buzzing in on its heels.

VERY SHORT WASP VISIT MOVIE: CLICK

 If two arrive at the same “flower” at once, there can be sort of a “scram” head-butt move, and mating behavior is reported at the flowers too. Clearly a good place to meet other wasps.

The wasp in the photo above is the Mexican Paper Wasp, and here’s a cool tidbit from Wikipedia. The harmless poser Papaya Fruit Fly mimics the wasp.  The Fruit Fly poser does not merely look like the MPW, it also threatens to zing you with stinging motions (but has no zing). CLICK to reveal the imposter.