Friday, August 31, 2007

Evening Primrose

Evening Primrose (Mentzelia decapetala, aka Nuttallia decapetala)


I found this humble weed growing on the ranch where I harvest much of the items for my food trials. The attention that it had gotten from the bugs excited my prospects for it as a source of food for my hermit crabs. However, I could not identify it. But with the help of South West Colorado Wildflowers, I was able to determine that I was actually looking at evening primrose. Well, I was encouraged by the fact that it is known to have various health benefits for humans. So I collected and dried a large batch of blossoms for trial. However, even after various offerings, the crabs did not sample any of the dried blossoms. Perhaps next year I will give more attention to the leaves, which part the bugs seem to favor.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Oops, that 's not Mentzelia, that's Oenothera.