Summer Dahlia

The Dahlia is mainly a native in Mexico but also in Central America, and Colombia.

Spaniards reported finding the plants growing in Mexico in 1525. They were used as a source of food by the indigenous peoples, and were both gathered in the wild and cultivated. The Aztecs used them to treat epilepsy and employed the long hollow stem of the (Dahlia imperalis) for water pipes.

The dahlia was declared as the national flower of Mexico in 1963.

I worked under the shade of the trees today while the sun followed behind, it was a warm 24C round mid-day. I've constantly listened to chirps from a young thrush demanding to be fed while high above in the tree tops loud shrills of excited wax-eyes feeding on berries could be heard. Monarchs have been fluttering around while Monarch caterpillars have striped four of my  swan plants, there's just too many to keep up the supply of leaves, they're even nibbling the stems of branches its going to take a while for the trees to recover.

I missed the sunrise today, thank you all for your stars, hearts and lovely words for yesterday's sunrise :)

Happy Tuesday everyone :)