Bronze fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) is starting to flower here. In spring it rises from dormancy in dense smokey plumes that really have the complex colors (dark reds, purples, greys, and greens) of patinated bronze. By midsummer it loses some of its compactness. The stalks rise to four or five feet for me and expose prominent lightly-colored petioles as the plant becomes more open. At this stage, the compound umbels of small yellow flowers appear at the top, attracting numerous small pollinators as well as bees and butterflies.
Eastern Black Swallowtail caterpillars use fennel as a host. I saw the first black swallowtail laying eggs on fennel this week. She spaced the eggs evenly across the group of plants, usually at the tips of leaves. They are small green or yellow translucent spheres. A female ruby-throated hummingbird at a nearby lantana observed the butterfly on the fennel and flew over to scare the butterfly away. The butterfly left, but she already laid her eggs. Afterward, the hummingbird tried to sip nectar from the fennel flowers (without success) and went back to the lantana.
Fennel flowers, 2012
Ruddy Gardener 