#gazinia

Gazania rigens (cultivar: Big Kiss - ‘Orange Flame’)

Kissy face

Gazania rigens is native to South Africa and Mozambique but is grown in gardens all over the world. This plant is well adapted to any Mediterranean climate and is now described as “naturalized” in the Azores, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, France, Portugal, California, and Argentina. It is considered an ‘invasive weed’ in the islands of Madeira, Sicily and Sardinia.

Gazania rigens originally sported only yellow flowers but cultivars are now available in a dazzling array of patterns and colors, like this lovely ‘Big Kiss - Orange Flame’. 

A couple of days ago I posted photos of a beautiful gazania cultivar, Big Kiss - Orange Flame. This gazania isn’t nearly as flambouant but that’s OK because the subject of these photos is that ant. Ants, like bees evolved from wasps and they are typically social insects with elaborate communication systems. 

Most ants don’t see that well but their distinctive elbow antanae can detect sound, vibration and chemicals called pheronomes. When a forager ant finds a food source it returns to the nest and sprays pheronomes all along the path. When it gets back to the nest it touches attenae with all the other forager ants and they follow the pheronome trail back to the food, spraying more pheromones all the way. Soon the trail is like super highway with dozens of ants going backward and forward. When the food source is exhausted they stop spraying pheronomes and they go back to the nest and touch antenae again to share the bad news. 

Gazania