
Kahili ginger is invasive, but still gorgeous. This flower was dappled with raindrops.

Kahili ginger is invasive, but still gorgeous. This flower was dappled with raindrops.

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Sweet.’ See more offerings here.
In my part of the Big Island, plumerias are starting to bloom in their curious way where the flowers appear on the tree before the leaves. In warmer parts of the island, plumeria trees are already thick with flowers and leaves. But in all cases, the flowers are redolent with a sweet perfume.
I like this photo because the blooms in this cluster are at different stages, from the tightly-curled buds at bottom right to the fully-open bloom at top left. But my attention was drawn to the flower unfurling in the center, all shadows and light and dappled with raindrops.
Also posted in response to Bushboys Last Photo for January 2020 challenge. See more responses here.

This orchid is a native of Borneo and the Philippines and has been known in the orchid world since at least 1908. This one was at Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden. For more information about Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden, go to htbg.com.

A bee forages on a red plumeria flower.


The aptly named cat’s whiskers flower (Orthosiphon aristatus) has a delicate form that never fails to catch the eye.

I’ve posted about agave attenuata before, in January of last year (here). The plants are blooming again and, once again, the bees are all over them. This year I wanted to focus on the bees in flight, just before they settled on the flowers to forage. This resulted in a fair number of bees buzzing around my head, but I worry less about that than I used to. I took a lot of photos, most of which were free of bees, or featured bee blurs.
These were a couple of my favorites, each capturing a bee just before plunging into the bounty within.


This laelia rubescens (aurea x alba) orchid was at Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden. For more information about Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden, go to htbg.com.

This spider lily had some lovely pink coloring, which made it pop against the mostly green background.