Soundings

River and Weather Conditions
April 30 - May 6, 2003

	TRR photo by Ed Wesely Marsh marigold flowers on a swampy hummock near Waymart, on May 4. (Click for larger image)

Marsh marigolds. It’s an impoverished spring without yellow/gold “marsh marigold” flowers ablaze in a swamp, so when a local colony was bulldozed into oblivion recently I was glad to discover dozens of plants in a small wetland near Waymart, PA.

American Indians called the plant Onondaga, “it blooms in the swamps,” while the scientific name, “Caltha palustris” combines the goblet shapes of its flowers—“kalathos” was Greek for “goblet”—with the plant’s craving for wet feet. The Latin word “palustris” means “of the swamp.”

	TRR photo by Ed Wesely An ant that may have fallen from a tree limb explores the petal of a marsh marigold flower. (Click for larger image)

The brilliant flowers also play tricks with ultraviolet light (invisible to our eyes) to guide bees and other insects to nectar at the center, where the insects assist with cross-pollination.

Small ants that fall from tree foliage (see the picture) are also potential pollinators. Both photographs appear in color on TRR’s website, www.riverreporter.com.

—Ed Wesely