When wildfires offer opportunities to native species, fire is part of the ecosystem. Drosera cuneifolia, a sundew species endemic to the western Cape mountains in South Africa. Very abundant in recently burnt patches of wet fynbos.

Summer blooming in the Mediterranean offers cooling stopovers to pollinators, as @cmhmaliani.bsky.social convincingly suggested (esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....). I wonder whether plants also benefit from enhanced flower showiness in a summer-whithered landscape.

El Levante en verano deja estas imágenes en el campo de Gibraltar. Las “barbas de Levante” (nubes de estancamiento) alivian la sequía estival en las sierras y contribuyen a explicar la riqueza y singularidad botánica del área del estrecho de Gibraltar.

Although diptera constitute their prevalent prey, moths are a frequent capture in summer. The aldehyde nonanal, a potent atttrating semiochemical for moths, is one of the most abundant VOCs emitted by Drosophyllum leaf-traps. See more here: www.researchgate.net/publication/...

In summer, Drosophyllum plants display their dry, open capsules upright on their stalks. Winds shake the stalks, helping to spread the seeds. We have also seen goats eating the stalks with the capsules (never the leaves!), suggesting the potential for ungulates as effective seed dispersers.

Today, my student (María Salces) has recorded this fascinating scene of a spider (likely Euryopis episinoides) stealing a prey ant (likely Aphaenogaster). Thanks to @biolvaro.bsky.social for identifications. Although not seen, the spider succeeded!

Although not often, we have seen spiders crawling up and down Drosophyllum leaves and presumed the existence of kleptoparasitism (slide from a presentation in 2019).

Drosophyllum plants with leaf-traps fully covered with mucilage in a summer day (10 july) on bare, dry soils. How do they manage? We’re working on it.