cardinal flower oka 20160820 132911

These are cardinal flowers (Lobelia cardinalis) growing in the sand at Oka beach near Montreal. The bright red wild flowers are pollenated by humming birds. It's the first time I have found them so I was enormously pleased when I stumbled upon them. (I was looking for frogs at the time). Oka is a fresh water beach on a bulge in the Ottawa river near where it joins the St Lawrence river called the Lake of Two Mountains. Cardinal flowers are in the lobelia family. I didn't have a camera with me so these were taken on a phone camera.