The dune sunflower (Helianthus debilis) loves well-drained sandy soils, making it ideal for Southwest Florida. Mine are planted in full sun, which it prefers, as it flowers more. It is a fast spreader, 1-2′ tall with 3-4′ spread, according to the Florida Wildflower Foundation. We have some planted in a wishing well my husband built us. I planted five in the wishing well, more than a year ago, and now the sunflowers cascade out, flowing around plants surrounding the base.
My daughter and I took a walk through the gardens and spotted four different species of butterflies before 9 a.m. Another active start to the day. Here are two that I was able to photograph, a zebra longwing and a gulf fritillary.
This monarch was hiding in my morning glory vine while I was watering. The colors caught my eye against the beautiful green of the vine, luckily, so I was able to move it before watering that section of the garden. It sat on my hand for a little bit before it dove into the red penta for a drink and then searched for more food in the lantana. It’s definitely sad when I find a butterfly whose wings are not quite right. But, it makes me proud to have a space where they find some refuge. Needless to say after filling up on nectar I brought him into our butterfly house for the night to rest.
Tonight while I was watering the garden I saw a tiny butterfly making stops at our nectar flowers. It waited in our garden long enough for me to run indoors and grab my camera. Then it posed, sitting on a white lantana watching me taking photos.
This little beauty is called a tropical checkered skipper. From research these butterflies lay eggs on plants of the mallow, or hibiscus family. Thomas C. Emmel of “Florida’s Fabulous Butterflies,” stated that the caterpillar will make a shelter by taking the leaf, folding and tying it together to hide during the day.
I did not have a chance to see the top of the wing, as it moved too fast when flying away. Too bad, as the top of the wings for males have “long, bluish-white hairs,” while females are much darker.
The skipper, Emmel said have hairy bodies, pointed wings and their heads are as wide as their body.
This afternoon I counted 51 polydamus swallowtail caterpillars among our three Dutchman pipe plants. They are all still small with the majority in clusters, with only a few going out on their own searching for new leaves. Thank goodness we have plenty of food for them because there are more clusters of eggs.
