The Secret of a Sundrop
After staying awake all night, a delightful lemon yellow evening primrose flower was ready to go to sleep. Playing with hawkmoths and bees in the moonlit summer night, she was very tired. Wearing a warm blanket of sunrays she started closing her soft, crinkly petals.
A bumblebee was flying around and came for a visit. She started whirling around the primrose attracted by her sweet fragrance. The primrose was half asleep and told the bumblebee to visit in the evening after the sun went down. The bumblebee didn’t understand why the gorgeous flower had closed her corolla in the bright sun! She became a little sad and confused and so went to talk to a friend, another bumblebee who was flying nearby. Both started checking out the primrose and tried hard to look for nectar. By that time the primrose was fast asleep with all four of her heart shaped petals snugly sealed.
A watermelon beetle was crawling by. The bumblebees asked him about the primrose. The beetle was very hungry and was not in a mood to answer their question. He was hurriedly heading to munch on the green foliage of the wildflowers. The bees thought about the wise Swallowtail butterfly, she might know the reason they said to each other. The beautiful yellow and black striped Swallowtail was exploring bright purple blooms of a butterfly bush along with a bee, a wasp and a hoverfly. The bumblebees promptly waited for the gathering to be over. When the Swallowtail was finished with her business, the bumblebees greeted her and then asked her about the yellow primrose. Swallowtail told them to ask the sphinx moth who would come at dusk. He knew all the secrets of the wildflowers, she added. The two waited patiently till the dusk, flying around the magnificent beds of wildflowers drinking stomach full of nectar.
As the sun went down, they heard a hovering sound. They looked to see who it was and saw a White Striped Sphinx moth. The month seemed very excited, with rapidly beating wings he was flying around the flowers to feast on the nectar. He had a funny looking long tube like nose which he was using very swiftly to drink sweet nectar from the flowers. The bumblebees flew near him and asked him about the primrose. The moth looked at them and smiled. He told them that being a nocturnal flower, the primrose only open up after the sun went down and close up when the sun came up and hence it was called Sundrop. While the moth was telling them about it, the primrose had already opened up its beautiful petals and was ready to greet all the pollinators.
Smita Kulkarni
07/28/2019
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