Macro Photography of a Sonchus Oleraceus , A Natural Pest Controller

Assalamualaikum Everyone. I hope all of you are doing well.

Today during my walk in our vegetable garden I saw this yellow flower. Its beautifully shaped layered petals and its bright yellow color caught my eye. This flower was looking beautiful among fresh green leaves. So, I decided to capture some photographs of this flower, which I am going to share with you all now. I took close-up shots to capture its beautiful layered petals.

And I also took close-up shot of its buds.

I did not know its name so I searched about it on Google and found out that its name is Sonchus oleraceus. It has many common names like common sowthistle, smooth sowthistle, soft thistle etc. They are host plants for aphids (tiny insects)source The benefit of this is that our other valuable plants remain safe from insects because they stay on this plant.

It also encourage the growth of beneficial predators such as hoverflies. source. When hoverflies come they prey on aphids living there, which makes the garden insects free without using any chemicals. So, we can say it's a Natural Pest Controller.

Sometimes we consider many things common and unnecessary but actually they are beneficial for us just like this plant. Most of us consider it as just a weed but in reality it is a silent protector of our garden.

Medicinal Uses

"Sonchus oleraceus (SO) has been used to treat many types of inflammation, including swelling and pain, dysentery, appendicitis, arthritis and so on, in China" ^Source

That was all for today. I hope you will like and appreciate my photography. Till the next post, Allah Hafiz