今年偏冷， 牛奶子开花了， 但是昨天17度， 没看到几个小蜜。

只好把2006年的照片整理了， 上到网址。从这些照片看来， 不但我的照相技术没有长进， D70拍的比D700也没有什么不好（像素少一点而已）。

跟沙棘一个科的， 胡颓子科， 胡颓子属。 小时候吃过， 我们那疙瘩叫“半身子”。 后来查了， 这个比较科学的名字是“小叶胡颓子”。

It is in peak bloom now but yesterday, being so cool (17 C), I found only a few bees on them.  In 2006, when I took these photos, flowers were buzzing with bees. This plant is everywhere and considered invasive. The fruits are edible and contains high amounts of lycopene (17 times higher than that of tomatoes), supposed to be preventive for prostate cancer.

The Latin name for this plant is Elaeagnus umbellata, in the family Elaeagnaceae.

These photos were taken with a D70 (yes, only 6 meg pixels!), but they are just as clear and sharp as my D700, just fewer pixels.

Judging from the photos I took, bees are mostly after the nectar and not really going for their pollen.

1. The texure of the flowers shows better here than you can see with the real flowers. Use "view image" to see a larger version of the photos here.

2. Still the same bee, I think.

3. This one must be the one that made to the cover of American Bee Journal, May, 2005.

4. You can see where she is trying to drink the nectar from.

5. Probing really deep.

6. The corolla must be too deep for our bees. She has to bury her head inside...

7. This one I did not use flash so the background looked more natural.

8.

9. This one you can have a good look on the flowers. I thought the flowers opens as white, then turn to yellow. But I may have to tag some flowers to verify this.

Reference

1. Wikipedia (23 May 2015)Elaeagnus_umbellata. Wikimedia Foundation, San Francisco, CA.

小时吃的一个是另外一个种， 很像这个： Elaeagnus pungens。 俗名一个是“半春子”。