Tag Archives: Texas Native Plants

Berry Brunch

Posted on by
13

This arching, medium-sized shrub, an American Beautyberry, Calicarpa americana, is laden with luscious purple berries, though the berries won’t be on their stems for long.

Beautyberries are food for a host of critters, but in my garden, it’s mostly mammals and birds who love these ridiculously purple fruits. Recently I watched as a couple of young, peckish male House Finches spent time enjoying the fruits of the shrub’s labors.

As I observed their brunch munching, I didn’t think they were particularly messy eaters, but I guess berry parts and juice will get stuck on beaks.

I like this shot. It looks like the berry is speared onto the bottom of the bird’s beak. Well, who hasn’t had that problem?

Late summer, moving toward autumn, many berrying native plants here in Central Texas reach their zenith in food production and beauty. I grow only one beautyberry shrub, but two Roughleaf Dogwood trees, Cornus drummondii, have their homes in my garden. The older, larger tree’s berries ripened in August and were quickly made into meals, stems now reaching out as if they miss their spherical hats.

The younger, smaller tree still offers a few clusters of creamy fruits.

I find it challenging to get clear photos of birds as they dine at the dogwoods. Birds tend to stay in the center of the trees, reaching up or out to snatch the fruits. Plenty of foliage for hiding and nervous bird movements mean that the trees have their fruits stripped, while birds are relatively safe from prying eyes (and cameras) as they eat. This year, Blue Jays, Northern Cardinals, and European Starlings were the most frequent diners of the dogwoods’ treats

While it’s a win to catch decent photos of nibbling birds, I’m content to observe wildlife eating healthy, native berries from my garden. After all, feeding the wild things is why I plant what I plant!

Pollinator Week

Posted on by
18

Hosted by Pollinator Partnership, June 17-23 is a week to celebrate pollinators in the garden. It’s easy to nurture a pollinator garden: plant flowers and the pollinators will come. Every season provides opportunities to grow plants that pollinators need for survival. Some pollinators are common throughout the growing season, while others appear only when certain flowers are available. Still others are migratory, showing up in the garden as they travel to other destinations to complete their life cycles. Pollinators add beauty and movement to a garden, and are indicator species of a healthy ecosystem; good gardeners always strive for a healthy ecosystem. Choose native plants in your garden, if available, but many non-native plants are excellent pollinator providers. Seasonal wildflowers, perennials and shrubs, as well as flowering trees will all attract and sustain pollinators of every stripe, wing, and kind. Pollinator insects include beetles, bugs, bees, flies, butterflies and moths. And don’t forget that bats and birds also pollinate.

So if you want something like this:

Gray Hairstreak, Strymon melinus on Zexmenia, Wedelia acapulcensis var. hispida

…or this:

Honeybee on Spiderwort, Spiderwort sp.

…or these:

Honeybee and Monarch Butterfly, Danaus plexippus, on Gregg’s Mistflower, Conoclinium greggii

…or this:

Red Admiral, Vanessa atalanta on American Basket Flower, Centaurea americana

…or these:

Two different native bees on Four-nerve Daisy, Tetraneuris scaposa

…or these:

Checkered White, Pontia protodice (R) and Dainty Sulphur, Nathalis iole (L) on Zexmenia bloom

…or this:

Queen Butterfly, Danaus gilippus, on Blue Curls, Phacelia congesta

…use native and well-adapted plants in your garden and the pollinators will come.

Insects and plants evolved together and form an interdependent partnership. Good gardeners accept that plants are eaten by beneficial insects, including those that become pollinators. So a little garden patience is required, understanding that some plants will show foliage damage–and that’s just fine. In particular, native plants are resilient and a little foliage munching by a pollinator juvenile won’t kill the plant.

Before they become jeweled and winged things, butterflies and moths are caterpillars, like this stripey beauty, an Eastern Black Swallowtail, Papilio polyxenes, caterpillar or larva. It will eat and eat, then grows and grows. Yes, the very hungry caterpillar causes some damage to the foliage, as well as leaving some poop, but look at that fat, healthy caterpillar!

Fennel is a host plant for Eastern Black Swallowtails

In time, a nice home will chemically form for the transformation from larva to adult butterfly.

Eventually, the adult insect emerges and joins the throngs of other pollinators in the diverse and thriving garden, nectaring from a wide array of plants, for both its and the plants’ benefit.

Eastern Black Swallowtail on American Basket flower

Pollinator gardening is a win for everyone! Pollinator gardening is easy, rewarding, and will usher the gardener to observe and appreciate a whole new community–right on their own plot of the Earth.

If you plant them, they will come.

Happy pollinator gardening!

Butterflies and Blue Curls

Posted on by
15

Like peanut butter-n-jelly or mac-n-cheese, butterflies-n-wildflowers form a classic pair. My personal aphorism defining wildlife gardening is, if you plant them (wildflowers), they (pollinators) will come. This proves especially resonant in a spring season with ample rain followed by generous sunshine.

Blue Curls or Caterpillars, Phacelia congesta, bloom beautifully from March through May, attracting a huge variety of pollinators to the blue/purple flowers, which unfurl along a cluster as the diminutive flowers open. Pollinators, especially butterflies, are ga-ga for Blue Curls’ bounty. Sunny days bring fluttery life to the space above and around blooming Blue Curls, all manner of winged things in constant movement. Other pollinators, like beetles and true bugs, reach the pretty little flowers through multi-legged walk-a-bouts.

Here, two Grey Hairstreaks nectar on the flowers while another waits in the background. Maybe that one is full of rich nectar, and sits, resting and digesting.

This hairstreak feeds, but is it alone?

Looking directly down from the small butterfly, another pollinator (a walking stick type insect or a nymph of some sort?) seemingly sips from a flower. I didn’t see this insect when I snapped the shot, only noticing once I downloaded the photo to my laptop. I scrolled through pages of iNaturalist Austin, but there are a gazillion insects listed and I don’t have the time to suss out this guy’s identity. Any suggestions as to what this well-camouflaged critter might be?

Monarchs migrated through Austin, though few visited my gardens. A Blue Curls cluster beckons, a Monarch cousin–the Queen butterfly–alights, nectars and pollinates.

Smaller butterflies like hairstreaks, skippers, metalmarks, and sulphurs frequent Blue Curls, often alongside other pollinators, all sharing dining on a given cluster of flowers. In particular, Fiery Skippers, like Grey Hairstreaks, are abundant.

I think this Fiery Skipper’s coloring complements its Blue Curls meal.

Native bees, especially the tiny Lasioglossum, or sweat bees, also favor Blue Curls. Flies of various sorts cavort amongst the Curls.

This Horace’s Duskywing, a rare find in my garden, provides a dramatic contrast with its Blue Curl plant of choice.

Blue Curls are annuals, living their full life cycle in one year: seeds; germinated seedlings; mature plants with flowers; seeds, once again, after flowers are finished. My Curls are past their peak of blooming, beginning their seed production. I’ll leave the individual plants until the seed heads are brown, then I’ll prune the stalks to the ground and shake all available seeds into the garden for next year’s crop. The Blue Curl seeds (as well as other perennial and annual seeds) are currently providing meals for migratory birds. I’ve observed Lincoln Sparrows, Common Yellowthroats, Clay-colored Sparrows, Yellow Warblers, and Painted Buntings eating from these plants in the last few weeks. Seeds and insects on plants make up most of migratory birds’ meals.

Once the Blue Curls of 2024 are history (aside from their dormant seeds snoozing on the soil), the heat-loving summer perennials and annuals will step up to provide cover and sustenance for bees, birds, butterflies, and other garden critters.

The cycle continues, unbroken, in a native plants, wildlife-friendly garden.