Day 238…yellows and purples

If you’ve read Robin Wall-Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass, you’ll recall that understanding why goldenrod and asters grow together was one of the questions she hoped botany could answer for her. Though these aren’t asters with the goldenrod, this is knapweed, but its colour similarity to asters is quite close and this colour combination is just as attractive to pollinators because they are complementary colours. Complementary colours are colours that are opposite each other on a colour wheel, and like yellow and purple attract more pollinators because the strong visual contrast makes the flowers stand out more. Interesting, wha?