Pollen-ator

Flowers ‘reward’ their pollinators with nectar and pollen. Above a southern carpenter bee (Xylocopa micans), identifiable in part by its “shiny hiney“, heads toward a partridge pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata).

The nickel to quarter-sized flowers of this member of the Fabaceae (pea) family are especially attractive to large bees.

An annual, partridge pea flower usually flowers in the late spring through early summer. Its seeds are eaten by quail (which the European settlers mistook for partridge) and other birds.