Seeing the anthers of a rhododendron flower up close makes it easy to imagine an insect’s attraction to them.

The anthers of a rhododendron are my favorite part of the flower. They are very sensual and quite full, literally as well as artistically, of possibilities. They hold the pollen that hungry insects pick up during a nectaring visit and eventually distribute to a stigma to complete the pollination process. They seem like the perfect, inevitable forms of insect-interwoven plant reproduction, drawing in anyone (or bug) that happens upon them.