Tendrils

Category: Butterflies

  • Virginia Springbeauty

    Virginia Springbeauty

    I’ve got itty-bitty buds on my Virginia Springbeauty (Claytonia virginica). Buds that look very much like really teeny tiny jalapeño peppers. What looks to me like those jalapeño peppers are sepals. Sepals are leaf-like structures surrounding and protecting the maturing bud. The number of sepals varies in difference species of flower. In Virginia Springbeauty there…

  • Blueberries

    Blueberries

    I’m watching both the progress the blueberry blooms are making as well as the calendar. Watching the blossoms grow and mature. Watching the weeks go by on the calendar. Right now in early April there are only tight buds on the many bushes. And it’s hard to say since this is weather related and as…

  • Sunflower

    Sunflower (Helianthus). The happy flower. You bet. Today would have been my Dad’s 96th birthday. He LOVED sunflowers. He loved to grow huge sunflowers! This post is a salute to my Dad’s favorite flower. A flower that’s popular with many creatures including bees. A flower that brings on the butterflies. A flower that inspires artists.…

  • Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

    Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

    My first sighting this season was yesterday. The state insect of Virginia, the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly (Papilio glaucus). Native to eastern North America. The butterfly I saw yesterday had just emerged from its chrysalis. Brand new. In the autumn an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail caterpillar will form itself into a chrysalis. NOT a cocoon but…

  • Common Hackberry

    Tree bark offers great opportunity to identify a tree during the winter. Some more straightforward than others. One tree that through its bark is a cinch to figure out, Common Hackberry (Celtis occidentalis). Its bark makes me think of a 3D topo map with all the ridges and valleys laid out and wrapped around the…

  • Eastern Comma

    Eastern Comma

    Another butterfly that you may see as you hike on an unusually warm winter day. An Eastern Comma (Polygonia comma). These species of butterflies that overwinter as adults have the ability to survive due to the presence of glycerol in their blood which prevents their bodies from freezing. They may come out to enjoy the…

  • Mourning Cloak

    As you are out hiking during the winter, take your time. Look around, notice things. There is so much to see, even in the dead of winter. If you’re fortunate you may see a Mourning Cloak Butterfly (Nymphalis antiopa) on the trail in that patch of sunshine ahead of you, warming itself. They overwinter as…

  • Yuccas

    Yuccas

    I love Yucca flowers. There are 2 different yucca species growing in my yard, each blooming in a different season. Yucca filamentosa, which is native to Virginia, blooms in early summer. And this one, Yucca gloriosa, native to extreme southeastern Virginia, blooms in early autumn. Remarkable that they both are native to this state, since…

  • Red Admiral

    Red Admiral

    Rotting fruit, sap flows on trees, and even bird droppings. The favorite foods of the Red Admiral, Vanessa atalanta. If the Red Admiral can’t find these it will sip flower nectar from Common Milkweed, Red Clover, Aster, and Alfalfa and more. The dropping Persimmons here on my mountain have been a bigtime draw for these beautiful…

  • Northern Pearly Eye

    Northern Pearly Eye

    Rather than open meadows, which butterflies often prefer, the Northern Pearly Eye, Enodia anthedon, choses to flutter about in the woods, whether shady or with sun filtering through. Fluttering by, feeling the need to rest, he’ll land upside-down to view his world. His caterpillar hosts are various species of grasses, grasses which are happy living on the…