Many thanks to contemplar@Flickr for today's photograph (original image). Along with visiting contemplar's Flickr photographs of Portuguese plants, be sure to also stop by her weblog, Blog de cheiros. Written in Portuguese but including the Latin names of plants, her blog amply illustrates why scientific names are preferable to common names in communicating about plants across languages. Thank you, contemplar!

This plant was photographed on the westernmost point of continental Europe at Cabo de Roca, Portugal. Paghat has written an article about the Formosa series of cultivated pinkball thrift which also includes a good deal of information about the wild species. I recommend trekking over there to learn more. There are also a few closeup photographs of this plant in cultivation on the Wikimedia Commons (about): Armeria pseudarmeria.

In other news, five days until I make a small announcement...

Entomology resource link: If anyone ever wanted my opinion on “The Best Sites on the Web”, I'd suggest BugGuide. The home page of the site gives an excellent introduction to what the site is about, so I encourage you to dive right in.