This tree ... or more like a big shrub ... produces a great combination of decorative flowers and tasty fruits ... and has something nice to offer throughout the whole year ... or almost.
Is in this garden since 1978 and still continues to bring a solid quantity of food and color to the table.
In this area flowers start to appear late in spring ...
... at first they look like this ... just small buds ... more like a promise of the flower ... but they grow fast, spread the petals ...
... and with their hyper saturated version of red ...
... they add a lot to the already exuberant part of the year.
There is a lot of buzzing around them in that period ... the bees are the most common visitors.
The common earwigs (Forficula auricularia) ...
... are very connected with this plant ... and by that I don't mean as a species. Earwigs are very adaptable omnivore insects that live in a wide array of habitats ... but the population here in my garden can always be seen hanging around the pomegranates. They feed on various soft, juicy or rotting plant material and this tree produces a lot of that. They eat the thick and juicy red petals and then the mature and rotting fruits. When you open the fruit in autumn, you'll often find an earwig or two inside, happily sheltered inside a warm, cozy house made of sweet,juicy food. They also hunt other small arthropods that share the same habitat.
Earwig in red is one of the iconic little seasonal scenes from my garden.
During the first half of summer ...
... I can see the flowers changing ...
... they are loosing petals ...
... and ...
... what remains on the tree ...
... is getting bigger ...
... and thicker ...
... on its way to become a fruit.
The petals ...
... that were embellishing the flowers ...
... providing the elegant, edible tents ...
... for earwigs ...
... are now decorating ...
... and carpeting ...
... the soil underneath the tree.
Sometimes ... on their way down ...
... petals get caught in spider webs ... this tiny brown spider, I don't know the species, has found a shelter underneath one of those falling red things.
Occasionally ...
... among all these petals ...
... you can see a few " future fruit parts" that also have fallen. There are always some pests present around my house and plants, and I like it that way. I always like to have some fruits less and some interesting species more here where I live.
The majority of flowers ...
... will eventually ...
... come to fruition ...
... during the late half of the summer.
The interior of the fruit is organized in non-symmetrical chambers, divided by thin membranes and filled with seeds, each one surrounded by delicious juicy sarcotesta - a new word for me, that I learned today while working on this post, and it means the fleshy seedcoat. That's the part that makes this beautiful fruit a joy to eat, not only to look at.
As a food, pomegranate is a rich source of many healthy and healing chemicals ... but I'm too lazy and not enough informed to explore that part of the story now. So I will continue ...
... with more comfortable things that don't require extensive research - I'll show you some cute cats :D
My cats love to play around this tree ... and when they were very young ...
... they loved it even more.
On this photograph is the famous Sivka :D ... in her young days.
And here ...
... hidden and masked ...
... barely visible in the shade ... is the young cat called Cricket ...
... photographed while trying to reach the fruit. If the summer is more humid than usual the fruits start falling early, sometimes even before the maturation. On the following photograph ...
... you can see Sivka as an adult cat ... near one of the fallen fruits.
These fruits are pretty heavy, and with a lot of them on the tree, you can see how the branches are getting close to the ground at the end of summer.
Some years I have tomatoes planted near the tree ...
... and on these photographs ...
... you can see how the tomatoes are climbing up, reaching the pomegranates ... and pomegranates hanging down, getting mixed with tomatoes ... a lovely gardening combination :D I did it unintentionally ... but I was very satisfied when I saw this thing. Looks cool. And you can also see on these photographs ....
... another cat :) This one is called Farabuto.
Some snakes also like to climb on this tree. This is a young exemplar of the Balkan whip snake ( Hierophis gemonensis ) A nice, non-venomous species.
This colorful little spider has built the web underneath the hanging branches.
I don't know the species. I saw it for the first and only time the day these photographs were taken.
On this photograph, resting on the fruit, is a young undeveloped version of the green shield bug, one of those stinky species.
From the last days of summer ...
... all through the early autumn ...
... you can watch the leaves slowly turning to yellow ...
... and falling.
Some heavy mature fruits start to rot during those humid days ...
... and soon you can see them on the ground.
The ants have built their large underground home among this plenty of sweet, nutrient edibles ... as you can see on this photograph. It looks almost like some molehill from this prospective. On the following video ...
... you can watch a small hedgehog that has just left his dusty shelter somewhere around my house ... and now is exploring the area around the pomegranate tree ... and is eating a bit of juicy seeds.
On the tree ... some fruits have cracked open after the rain.
(Enlargeable)The Red admiral butterflies (Vanessa atalanta) can now reach the nutrient interior. They are very active in autumn, doing their reproductive stuff that for the males involves a lot of flying and fighting while defending the territory. They need a lot of energy and the proximity of such a big quantity of ideal, easy to reach nutrients is a great help. I'm very glad that I'm able to observe many beautiful butterflies of this species right in front of my house.
The flies are also attracted by the cracked and rotting fruits. On this photograph is one very common ... and very big species that is always present in autumn.
And here is the opposite fly type - the minuscule fruit fly, one of the many species that appear in this part of the year around the tree. On the following photograph ...
... you can see a ninja! :D My black cat called Miaucula, playing hide-and-seek with me.
As the yellow tinted autumn days ...
... with their long shadows ...
... are aproaching the next season ...
... you can see fewer leaves on the branches ...
... and more on the ground all around the tree.
Then in winter, the leaves are all gone ...
... the tree will look very different till the next spring.
Some fruit remain, kind of mummified, on the barren branches.
And when the next spring arrives ...
... with fresh new leaves ... buds ...
... and flowers ...
... some of these old mummies ...
... will still be there ...
... as some sort of reminder that the things will change again.
And now ...
... with the closing shot of my house seen through the branches of this tree ... is time to end this little pomegranate saga :D ... I hope you won't become allergic to this wonderful plant after this prolonged exposure and a cruel overdose through this post. As it was on Steemit, in this Hive post of mine, all the photographs and video materials are my work.
My father recently asked me "Have I ever seen a pomegranate blossom"
Now with confidence I can say that I saw everything!)))
Pomegranates have no more secrets :D
Thanks to you, my friend!)