Mullein

Flowers are nice. But sometimes it is not about the flowers. Like in this case. The white woolyness on the bright green leaves is a special kind of beautiful. Sometimes if you get up close to a plant and look at the details, it is just amazing. This plant wasn't labeled, but it looks like Verbascum thapsus to me. It has many common names, and many of them refer to the wooly quality I find so fascinating: feltwort, blanket mullein, velvet, Lady's blanket. This plant has been used as a medicinal herb. It is supposed to help with coughs, and used topically is supposed to improve the skin. I think I will stick with products I get at the store. For now.

Eriogonum

This buckwheat has lovely soft yellow blooms held about a foot above a low mat of foliage. I love the color and form, but question the name. "Sulfur Flower???"?????!!! That is not the color of sulfur. The mineral if a brassy bright yellow, almost like that terrible oxalis weed. I suspect that this may be Eriogonum ersinum, Bear Buckwheat. I will have to ask someone at the UC Botanical Garden, where this picture was taken, if they know something about this plant that I don't. Maybe the sign was moved from its proper location. It is a mystery to me.

Poor Knight's Lily

What an amazing flower! Like a bottlebrush, only more so. Blooming today at the UC Botanical Garden in Strawberry Canyon. The plant is named after the island where it grows, Poor Knight's Island, and it is an example of island ecology. The plants that grow on islands are often much larger, smaller or different from those on the mainland. This one is different in a big way!

Snake

The excitement today at the UC Botanical Garden was the Gopher Snake in the soil bin. At first I thought maybe it could be a rattlesnake, but it had no rattle. And I thought it might be alive, but it didn't move, even when we became noisy. So, finally, I decided I had to know if it was alive, and I touched it with a shovel. Dead. Then I used a shovel to pull it out of the soil. No head. REALLY DEAD. When Paul, our brave director, saw it, he said, "Oh that is just a gopher snake. I used to work with those. Then he picked it up and disposed of it. It is so nice sometimes to have a zoologist around. The botanists, horticulturalists and gardeners are fine, but sometimes you need someone who is comfortable with animals.

Lorquin's Admiral

This is a Lorquin's Admiral that I raised a few years ago. The caterpillars are brownish and whitish and look sort of like bird poop. I guess this discourages birds from eating them. I post this now because I saw this butterfly at the UC Bot Garden yesterday, May 20. I hope we see more of them when I have my Butterfly Walk there on Tuesday. I am doing regular butterfly walks on the fourth Tuesday of the month. Also, there was a ceanothus moth there yesterday that many people enjoyed. I got some pictures of it, but it wasn't my camera, so I don't know if I am going to be able to post that.

Texas

We went to Texas last month on vacation. We wanted to go before it got hot, but it was the wrong season for butterflies. It was cold, and the day we set aside to go to the North American Butterfly Association Butterfly Park in Mission, it was raining. We did see some incredible birds, however; the green jay, northern cardinals, black-bellied whistling duck, and the roseate spoonbill. Also the great kiskadee, the chachalaca, black crowned night herons, and probabaly a few others that I don't remember now. Actually, sometimes it is the unexpected discovers that are more fun than seeing the sights that one has planned. We also saw alligators, turtles, racoons, and even an amardillo that ran into the brush. While in Corpus Christi, we visited the SW Texas Botanical Garden, which has a screenhouse with butterflies. That is where I got the pictures of the Mexican bluewing (which is actually purple) and the male monarch. You can tell it is a male because of the scent glands, which look like two black dots on the veins of the hind wings. Anyway, it was a lovely trip, with much wildlife, a few flowers, and tolerable weather.

Gulf Fritillary

Today, I happened to see a gulf fritillary caterpillar on my Passiflora subpeltata vine. I had seen eggs awhile back, so I was not really surpised, but it is always nice to see insects in the middle of winter. I love our mild weather. And, I released five adults just a few days ago, so a new generation should be coming along soon. The camillias are blooming, eucalpyptus, magnolias, daisys, the list goes on and on. And today was so warm, it almost felt like June. Anyway, we need more rain, so I hope it gets wet again soon.