Weekly Photo Challenge: Inside

I have a native cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum) in my yard. This plant and I have the perfect sort of plant-gardener relationship – the one where I ignore it and it grows and thrives. This year the drought has not been kind to it and it’s a bit smaller than normal. The foot diameter patch is only four to five feet tall instead of having closer to a two foot circle with over six foot flowers.  All the way up the giant stem cups are formed at the base of the leaves, after a rain (or a dewy night) the insides of these cups fill with water. Then these little pockets of water draw all sorts of insects, birds and sometimes even a small frog or two.  I can always count on watching our resident goldfinches  flitting in and out of the patch, getting a drink as soon as the plant shoots up in the spring and later eating the seeds from the yellow flowers.

Now I’ve got to end this post and get back to my usual fare of  swearing kids, sleeping dogs, and piles of laundry before I start writing like a gardening catalog and leave you with some sappy line like:

“Pick up one of these easy keepers for that troublesome wet spot in your yard today!”