I walk my garden daily, more times than not, multiple times a day.
When you plant a butterfly garden your eyes become trained on what to look for – eggs, caterpillars, chrysalis, butterflies – all the stages of life.
Lately I have found a few newly emerged monarch butterflies in the garden, a great surprise, as I never saw the chrysalis. The last few have been on the underside of the giant milkweed leaves, the monarchs host plant.
Today, I spotted this beauty still drying its leaves.
Another lifecycle has begun. I have begun to spot many monarch caterpillars again. The clues they give make it easy to spot them, such as their frass left on leaves. The size of the frass also lets you know how big the caterpillar may be.
The sunflower has always been one of my absolute favorite flowers. They just look happy. I’ve had dune sunflowers for a good four, or five years, but the sunflower, I can’t tell you when.
My daughter and I have been looking for the perfect flower for a particular spot in the garden and saw this, and well, it went right in the cart.
This morning a male monarch butterfly was resting, and walking on my new addition.
Two monarch butterflies emerged today. One in the garden, and the other in our butterfly house.
Both of them hung out on my zinnia plants, which is a new feature in the garden, a DYI fountain, that has plants surrounding it in a pot.
The monarch butterfly’s scientific name is Danaus Plexippus, which means “sleepy transformation” in Greek. The male has two black spots in the center of its lower wings and are larger in size than the female. According to the National Wildlife Federation, the spots are scent glands, which help the males attract females.
The monarch caterpillars feed solely on milkweed leaves, which produces glycoside toxins, according to the National Wildlife Federation, which deters other animals from eating the caterpillars. The toxins are stored making them taste bad and remains after they emerge into a butterfly, continuing to protect them.
The monarch butterfly will emerge 10 to 12 days after making its chrysalsis. The transformation is incredible to witness as the green chrysalis eventually becomes translucent revealing the beautiful black and orange body within.
The butterfly emerges headfirst with small and shriveled wings. As it pumps body fluid through its wings they grow in size. The butterfly will remain in the same spot for up to two hours drying its wings, hardening them getting ready for flight. According to Arizona State University School of Life Sciences, during the two hours it is also waiting for air to replace some of its fluids.
