The “Lo & Behold®” butterfly bush (Buddleja davidii ‘Blue Chip’) continues to attract butterflies and moths in its second summer. Additionally a picture of the Holly, our family dog taking in some sun.
Went home for a few days (7/29/2013) before fully moving back to Delaware from NC and here are some things I found around the yard at home. I am now fully returned to Delaware and will post some of my last pictures from NC in a few days.
I get asked “what flower/plant is this” when people find out I have a biology degree and I have to remind people that I am not a botanist, horticulturalist or a naturalist, but an ecologist 🙂 All are excellent fields and I know enough about plant biology to help me figure things out with a picture, identification key, and the internet, but I did not specialize in plant identification beyond families. That special knowledge is one of the things I’m working on with this blog.
I’ve talked about this before, but horticultural varieties of plants are bred for showy flowers, leaves, etc. and so identifying them can be a challenge if you don’t regularly browse garden catalogs, due to characteristics not found in the wild. Characteristics include varigated colors, doubling of petals, varying petal morphology, etc. It should also be noted that my blanket labeling of the eastern purple coneflower may be erroneous as there are a number of species in the coneflower Echinacea genus that are similar or horticultural varieties, and so what I’m seeing may not be the purpurea species. I have spent the morning browsing catalogs and have figured out a few of the plants, thanks to my limited botanical background. Still there were a couple I’ll have to look at the whole plant to help guide my search. You can really narrow your search if you know that a plant is a shrub vs. a flower, if it’s a succulent, whether it’s an annual or perennial, etc.
In the altered words of Doctor Leonard McCoy “I’m an ecologist, not a [horticulturalist, naturalist, botanist]” so just for kicks, some dictionary definitions.
Horticulture: the science and art of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, or ornamental plants
Botany: a branch of biology dealing with plant life
Naturalist: a student of natural history; especially : a field biologist
Ecology: a branch of science concerned with the interrelationship of organisms and their environments
Snapped some pictures on the University of Southern Indiana campus where I was for a fraternity leadership conference 6/29/2013. Also thought I’d try out the mosaic gallery format over the usual circles.
Went up to the Blue Ridge Parkway entrance near Waynesville, a part of it I’ve only been on a couple times. Caught a picture of jewelweed in bloom, probably the yellow form listed, although there is a pale jewelweed that is also yellow. The juice from the stems is supposed to bring relief from poison ivy and stinging nettle, and it has also shown some anti-fungal properties. I also snapped a picture of a bee inside one of the blooms. There was some species of goldenrod nearby but I don’t have enough of a reference shot to determine the species as I was more interested in what turns out to be a locust borer on the flower head. Locust borers are native and as their name suggests, they bore into black locust trees, problem being that black locust are used in restoration and so the locust borers have spread with the use of the tree, according to the linked site. Also nearby was a species of joe-pye weed, probably hollow stem joe-pye weed which was feeding a bee and another feeding what looks like a pipevine swallowtail butterfly. Pipevine swallowtails can look similar to the black morph of the eastern tiger swallowtail, black swallowtails and the spicebush swallowtail, however if you can look at the spots on the hind underwing you can determine the species. Pipevines have a c shape of orange spots, spicebush have a blue spot that looks like a tooth or comet interrupting the row of orange spots , black’s have an extra orange spot connected to the main row, and black morphs have a complete row of orange spots and faint tiger striping. I also took a scenic shot from one of the overlooks.
A bunch of painted lady butterflies were visiting our butterfly bush today. An eastern tiger swallowtail also visited long enough for me to take some pictures. This is my last day of living in Delaware at my family’s home, and I will be moving to Waynesville, North Carolina tomorrow to begin my 11 month AmeriCorps Project Conserve service with Friends of Great Smoky Mountains National Park in September. I am looking forward to continuing this blog by photographing nature back in western NC where I went to graduate school and interned at Great Smoky Mountains National Park two years ago.
As promised I have put to pictures side by side comparing the hind wings of the two different painted lady butterflies I’ve photographed. American painted ladies have 2 larger spots on their hind wings while painted ladies have 4 smaller spots on their hind wings. It seems now is the time for the painted ladies as they’ve been swarming our butterfly bush. Also another snowberry clearwing moth.
Caught this rather beleaguered looking monarch visiting our butterfly weed today. If you look at picture number 1 where you can see the left fore and hind wing you’ll see that the first black “vein” near the body has a black oval section. This is unique to male monarchs and serves as a way for us to determine the sex of the butterfly. It is a pouch that releases pheromones during courtship to attract the females.
Another dragonfly today, still just a guess on the species but based on other pictures from the Delmarva Dragonflies and Damselflies site I think it’s close to the common whitetail dragonfly. My first eastern tiger swallowtail that actually “posed” for me today. In picture 1 you can clearly see the proboscis which is the straw like mouth part that butterflies and moths use to get at the nectar in flowers.
Another photo of a wheel bug, this one crawling on our screen. A new butterfly species visited out butterfly bush today, a common buckeye butterfly.
phototerrascientia 