Pasque Flower – Original

Description

One of the earliest flowers to bloom on the prairie, pasque flowers—named for their tendency to bloom at Easter time, at least in certain regions—cater to the earliest-emerging pollinators, like queen bumblebees, miner bees, and the bee-look-alike syrphid flies. The dense hair on the plants helps trap in heat, as do the flowers as they open to track the sun through the day and close to safeguard the gathered heat at night. When cold snaps and late spring snowstorms hit, the flowers are like a cozy cabin for the pollinators—the insects can force their way through the petals into the warm interior where a feast of nectar and pollen awaits, fortifying them with the heat and energy needed to fly to the next flower. The pasque flower is the state flower of South Dakota.

Dimensions: 9 x 12 inches

Art is unmatted and unframed.

This is original colored pencil art made with Polychromos Colour Pencils by Faber-Castell, an oil-based colored pencil that contains less wax than most colored pencils and therefore suffers from less wax bloom than most (in which the wax rises to the surface, dulling pigments over time). The pigments are acid-free, with the highest lightfast ratings in the industry. The majority of the colors are rated at the highest fade resistance of 100+ years, with a few rated at 25+ years.