12th July 2026
Sunshine Stripes
The sun continues to shine fiercely.
The cinnabar moth caterpillars wear their tiger stripes just as boldly, basking upon the ragwort as though the sunshine belonged to them.
Most creatures wear camouflage. These wear confidence.
Their colours aren’t an attempt to hide. Quite the opposite. They are warning colours, announcing to hungry birds that they taste every bit as unpleasant as the ragwort upon which they feed.
This morning, before the heat gathered into its full roar, I paid them a visit. We’re neighbours, you see. It felt important to check in on them. To see that they were okay.
They’ve taken up residence in a ragwort high-rise, just across the wildlife pond from where I’ve set up camp beneath the mighty oak, escaping the fiercest heat of the day.
There had been almost no dew overnight. I knew by my slipper barometer, which remained stubbornly dry.
So, armed with a misting bottle full of rainwater, I gave the caterpillars a beauty spritz, sending a fine mist into the air and letting it settle gently around them. Whether they appreciated my efforts or simply tolerated the interruption, I couldn’t honestly say.
But tiny beads of water settled upon the delicate hairs they wear so elegantly—another, rather more delicate part of their armour.
As I lingered, I found myself noticing the neighbours sharing their ragwort world.
A ladybird.
Hoverflies.
Soldier beetles.
Tiny spiders.
Life everywhere.
All sharing the same address.
Ragwort has rather an undeserved reputation.
Dismissed by many as nothing more than a troublesome weed, it quietly supports an astonishing abundance of life. Well over 170 species of invertebrates depend upon it, some almost entirely. Others come simply for its remarkably rich nectar.
Whole communities are woven through its stems and flowers, largely unseen by those merely passing by.
The cinnabar moth is perhaps its most faithful companion. By feeding upon ragwort, the caterpillars borrow the plant’s toxic compounds into their own bodies, making their warning stripes an honest advertisement rather than a bluff.
The scientific name for this is aposematic coloration.
I rather like thinking of them simply as sunshine stripes.
Their stripes don’t ask to be admired.
They ask to be understood.
Perhaps the same could be said of ragwort.
Sometimes the plants we are quickest to judge are quietly holding whole worlds together.
