Category Archives: Butterflies

Buy Your Butterfly Plants from CHAC

Posted by Lesley on February 9, 2011 None comments

My story on Community Haven’s plant nursery ran in today’s Sarasota Herald-Tribune.  It’s actually Community Haven for Adults and Children with Disabilities (CHAC), and the story ran today because I said and tweeted it would run Saturday.  So it goes…every time.  If no one asks the dreaded question, When will it run?, then the story will run the following day.  But if the question is asked, and even worse, if the question is answered, then I can count on a week’s worth of Groundhog Day mornings, which consist of me running to the driveway in my pink bathrobe before brushing my teeth or hair not to find my article in print.  Even with Lucille Ball across the street, it’s not nearly as funny as Bill Murray being binged by the annoying insurance agent Ned Ryerson every morning.  But back to real life as I know it, the old lady across the street looks exactly like an off-her-rocker Lucille Ball.  She’s Lucy meets Kramer, and even though and possibly because she won’t so much as wave to me, she is my all-time favorite neighbor ever.

Anyway, it really doesn’t matter to me when an article is printed as long as it’s printed.  But when I’ve said when it’s going to run, I check because the other person is checking.  Three or four days in and I start thinking, do they think I’m some crazy woman who has no connection to the paper and there is no article?  Who’s the crazy neighbor now?  Lucille Ball or me? 

Besides when, I also have no control over what prints.  This time around, my favorite butterfly tidbit got cut from the final article.  As the workers were about to move a load of parsley, about 75 swallowtail caterpillars were spotted under the leaves.  Around 80% metamorphosized into butterflies.  The experience was turned into an impromptu and ongoing lesson for the Selby preschoolers on the life cycle of butterflies. 

The nursery specializes in butterfly plants and Florida native plants.  This is a table full of newly propagated milkweed…just think of all the Monarchs and lessons!

The article turned out great regardless of timing or edits because CHAC really has something with their plant nursery – the potential for a profitable business that drives a social cause.  It’s smart and it comes from a good place - to provide work and resources to people with disabilities.  And here’s a general observation that I can’t make in a newspaper article: it felt like a happy place to be and work, disabled or not.  Shop there, take a tour, hire the crew for landscaping, donate something, anything, just support their cause.  They are providing programs, food, housing, support, and jobs to our community.  And the more support we give, the quicker they’ll become another reliable, healthy, local food source.  They’re already talking about starting a buyers club.   

The nursery is located at 4405 DeSoto Road; the number is 941-302-1828.

Attracting Gulf Fritillaries to Your Butterfly Garden

Posted by Lesley on February 5, 2011 1 comments

The drunken butterfly I surprised on Wednesday must have told all his friends about my garden.  I’ve seen one every day since.  It’s great because there hasn’t been a Gulf Fritillary around the garden in quite some time.  And since every time I see one, he or she is wing-deep in white flowers, it seems the influx is thanks to the Button sage.   

There are two white Button sage plants in my butterfly garden.  Unlike the Porterweed and Pentas, the Button sage has stayed strong and green through every cold snap.

The sticks in front are the Porterweed, and the droopy brown leaves in the background are the Pentas.  Injured but not out, they both have visible regrowth.  I’m waiting until March to cut everything back – better safe than sorry.  The lush green in front of the Button sage is Lantana.  It’s not blooming right now, but the cold had no effect on it.  Both Button sage and Lantana are in the verbena family. 

Another possible reason for so many Gulf Fritillaries lately is one of the other newbie plants in the garden – the Passionflower vine.  Although Button sage provides nectar to the butterflies, Passionflower feeds and protects the larva.  The passion flowers are toxic.  The toxins stay in the larva and are poisonous to predators.  My vine hasn’t produced and blooms yet, but its corky-stems have shown me some love.   

When the garden used to see Gulf Fritillaries regularly, I had a lot of Mexican sunflowers and Zinnias planted.  Both are nectar sources.

The Secret Life of Butterflies and Ibis

Posted by Lesley on February 2, 2011 3 comments

I love that old episode of Seinfeld where Jerry leaves the apartment and we get to see what Kramer actually does when Jerry’s not around.  Kramer dresses up in his suits, takes the bike off the wall and rides it around the apartment; he starts fights with people on the street from Jerry’s window, the list goes on.  I couldn’t embed the video, but you can see the clip on YouTube. 

I popped home for about 15-minutes this morning and felt the same way about the critters…what do they do when we’re not around?  While doing a quick round of watering, I found this Gulf Fritillary getting drunk in my butterfly garden.

And as I went to leave, the ibis were swiftly sneaking away like they had just committed a crime.  By the time my camera was in position, they had already made it to the corner stop sign.

Suspicious, but I’ll give them a break because they’re just little brown babies.  American White Ibis, like their namesake, are all white except when they’re young.  At about two years-old, they lose their brown plumage and molt into their white adult forms.  Babies or adults, the ibis are welcome; but let’s hope that opossum doesn’t get any ideas while we’re out.     

Orange-barred Sulphur Butterfly

Posted by Lesley on January 20, 2011 None comments

I’ve seen several sulphurs in the garden since planting the Cassia tree; capturing a photo has been a completely different story.  They’re frantic little things, never stopping long enough to capture them on film.  Most of my photos look like this…

And for the most part, I’ve seen the more common yellow sulphurs, aka Cloudless sulphurs.  But the universe gave me one this week and sent this spectacular Orange-barred sulphur to my butterfly garden.   

Although it took about a dozen tries, this particular butterfly was kind enough to pose for at least three seconds so I could get the shot.  Sulphurs are nothing like Monarchs.  Monarch butterflies are complete hams!   

Cloudless Sulphur Caterpillar Confirmation

Posted by Lesley on November 4, 2010 2 comments

It was nagging at me; what was that black and yellow caterpillar in the Cassia tree?  Thank you Florida Butterfly Caterpillars and Their Host Plants for the positive identification: it’s a future Cloudless Sulphur butterfly. This is probably one of the cooler caterpillar varieties.  Their diet dictates their color.  Mine was obviously feasting on the yellow flowers of the Cassia tree.  The leaves would have made him green.  Stephanie Sanchez has amazing photos of the contrast on her site, http://butterflies.heuristron.net/. 

http://butterflies.heuristron.net/butterflies/orangeBarOrCloudlessCaterpillar.html

The photos are fantastic, and Sanchez is a fellow Floridian.  Her website is a good resource for identification with over 30 caterpillars and over 40 butterflies represented.  This is another one of her photographs of a Cloudless Sulphur butterfly.   

http://butterflies.heuristron.net/butterflies/cloudlessSulphur.html

Minno, M.C., Butler, J.F. & Hall, W.H. (2005). Florida Butterfly Caterpillars and Their Host Plants. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.

Buddy Walk Butterfly Garden

Posted by Lesley on October 28, 2010 4 comments

Congratulations to Ubermommy; she’s now uber-executive-director too. In her first three months on the job she led her team to a successful Buddy Walk, raising over $65,000 for Manasota BUDS (Bringing Up Down Syndrome).  And congratulations to me on winning the silent auction for a butterfly garden from Mariposa.  John was still feeling guilty over the grapefruit tree, so he literally stood by the list for the last 15-20 minutes of bidding, adding my name the minute anyone else bid. No one was going home with that butterfly garden other than me.  We mutually agreed afterwards that we felt bad about bullying Ubermommy with our eyes when she made an attempt to outbid me.  To make up for it, she got a potted mini butterfly garden of yellow lantana, white button sage and milkweed.

The package was incredible, and the garden is already delivering butterflies.  John’s diligence and devotion won me a cassia tree, passionflower vine, porterweed, two pentas, two milkweeds, three button sages, and three lantanas!  Plus one other unidentified plant that also went to Ubermommy. There were 14 plants in total, and the cassia tree even came with a caterpillar!

I think it will turn into a sulphur butterfly, but then again it could be a moth.  I couldn’t find confirmation in any of my field guides, and I really don’t care either way because the cassia is already attracting so many sulphurs.  They’re an elusive group of butterflies, always flying through the garden but never landing.  With all the different flowers planted over the years, there have been monarchs, fritillaries and swallowtails hanging around but never sulphurs.  Now I have my missing piece – a cassia tree.  It seems like every time I look out at it there’s a sulphur flitting around its flowers.  The big win has greatly improved the view from our kitchen and Florida room windows.  It was as if HGTV came in and gave us a mini-makeover.  Here’s the before:

When we first planted the area, it was beautiful – two pink Perfume Delight roses surrounded by a bed of pink mums.  It held up well for never changing out the mums and very rarely fertilizing the roses, but the weeds and grass took over and it was ready for an overhaul.  Here’s the after:

The only thing it needs now is a little sign that says, “Ella’s Garden” because she’s the reason I walk every year.  Go BUDS!  Go Ella!

Pirate Ella ~ 2010 Buddy Walk

Miniature Monarchs

Posted by Lesley on August 12, 2010 None comments

My mom forgave me for telling the world what an animal hater she is and sent me an interesting email about butterflies, which she does not hate.  While visiting Rainbow’s End Butterfly Farm and Nursery recently, she chatted up the owner about the size of butterflies.  I mentioned that it seemed as if butterflies in New York are bigger than butterflies in Florida.  The owner of Rainbow’s End said this could be due to a common disease amongst monarchs.  Under New York law, she is permitted to export butterflies to Florida but is prohibited from importing them because of a disease commonly found in Florida monarchs. 

During my laundry room experiment, I remember reading about a disease called OE – Ophryocystic Elektroscirrha.  OE is a protozoan parasite unique to monarchs and milkweed, and it does indeed cause monarchs to be smaller in size, specifically they weigh less and have shorter forewings.  While Googling OE, I came across another butterfly farm, Shady Oak.  They have a page called Ask Edith; Edith is one of the owners and she addressed a question about OE.  Apparently, it’s more common in Florida because butterflies fly year-round and plants don’t freeze to the ground, so the cycle never ends.  In colder climates, spores die as the milkweed disintegrates in the winter.  In the warmest part of Florida, the southern tip, there is approximately an 85% infection rate compared with 30% or less in the rest of the country.  

After reading up on OE and its symptoms, it seems that I prematurely blamed the ants when it was probably OE that took my third and final butterfly baby.  Another symptom is that they’re too weak to hold onto the pupal case while their wings unfurl.  But to end on a happier note, here’s a photo of a beautiful female monarch warming its wings on the banks of the Hudson River.

 

Hello again!

Posted by Lesley on August 8, 2010 None comments

I’m back from New York and finally back to blogging.  Since I never officially closed out my run with ABC Wednesday, I feel I should say Z is for Zip-a-dee-do-dah, I’m also back online!  I loved my summer vacation in New York visiting with friends and family, but it’s 2010 and I love my high-speed internet connection equally.  Getting so behind makes it tough to decide where to begin, but it makes sense to start back up with my go-to favorite subject – butterflies.  My mom and I spotted scores of them walking through the woods behind the Cary Institute.  This was one I’d never seen before – a Red Admiral:

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The butterfly pictured above is a Northern Pearly-eye, and the one below is unidentified.  Help, please?

Y is for Yikes!

Posted by Lesley on July 8, 2010 4 comments

Once again I missed ABC Wednesday, but I have a good reason.  I’m in New York and my mother’s house seems to have a real problem with me having online access – same thing last summer.  And to make matters worse this summer, the neighbor wised up and secured his wireless connection.  It only takes one and my sister and her iBook may have ruined it for the neighborhood, so here we sit at the local library.  Yada Yada Yada…on to my Yikes!  When I landed in New York on Tuesday, the pilot announced, “The local temperature is a scorching 99 degrees.”  I thought he was Yanking my chain until I stepped out of JFK airport and felt the heat climbing up my legs like wildfire.  That combined with this familiar looking butterfly, I’m not completely sure where I am anymore…Florida, New York, the sun???  

On first glance, I thought this was a Gulf Fritillary.  But after thinking about it, one: it’s unlikely for this area and two: it’s just not orange enough.  Now I’m thinking Great Spangled Fritillary.  Check the pictures and see for yourself.  The heat minus the constant air conditioning of Florida has my brain feeling Yucky.   

Got Milkweed?

Posted by Lesley on May 1, 2010 3 comments

The only thing unattractive about milkweed is its name.  Weed carries a negative connotation for most gardeners; it implies pesky or intrusive, but milkweed is neither.  It produces bold little blooms and attracts over 160 species of butterflies!  I thought it was just monarchs, but they’re simply the most familiar because monarchs feed solely on milkweed.  Depending on where you live, milkweed will attract viceroys, queens, skippers, fritillaries, and more.  This is only one of the five monarch caterpillars I’ve seen in the past two weeks on my two milkweed plants.

     

John called me a nerd when I stuck this bumper sticker on my car, but I love it!