The Springtime Glow of Golden Ragwort

Golden Ragwort blooms
March 15, 2024

While there are many spring wildflowers that are stunningly beautiful when viewed from nearby, there aren't many that put on a bright show from afar.  One that does is Golden Ragwort (Packera aurea).

Golden Ragwort blooms
with Eastern Calligrapher (Syrphid Fly)
March 25, 2024

Viewed from near or far, Golden Ragwort is a shining star.  Or, to be more accurate, Golden Ragwort is a cluster of shining stars, often found in drifts of gold, nestled in clouds of glistening emerald green foliage.

Golden Ragwort winter foliage
February 7, 2025

Let's unpack that last statement....  One of the things that really appeals to me about Golden Ragwort is the richly shining, emerald foliage which is at its best in early spring, a time when I'm craving green.  For most of the year, this plant grows as a basal rosette of rounded leaves which can form a beautiful ground cover in mass.  The rosettes stay evergreen through the cold, ready to start growing rapidly as the days lengthen and the weather warms up.

Flower buds developing above ferny foliage
February 26, 2024

As the springtime cues of longer days and warmer temperatures come, the plants start to get "fuller and fluffier" (as my friend Barbie used to say) and, before long, ferny-looking leaves begin to appear.  The ferny leaves signal that the flower stalks are beginning to grow. 

 

Buds opening on a Golden Ragwort flower cluster
(Very blurry Asian Ladybug on center bud)
March 14, 2024

Soon clusters of green and purple buds are pushing skyward, on stems often suffused with deep purple.  By early-mid March, the buds are breaking open into clear yellowish gold, daisy-shaped flowers that appear in flat-topped clusters held about 12-18" above the ground.

Cluster of Golden Ragworts in bloom
March 15, 2024

A bed of Golden Ragworts in full bloom is breath-taking.  In a woodland setting, clusters of them scattered among trees seem to create their own dappled sunlight in the shade.  Even a single plant in full bloom is a bright accent that inevitably draws the eye.

Which brings me to one of the great characteristics of Golden Ragwort: it grows in a variety of conditions, ranging from full sun to fairly heavy shade, and from moderately dry soil to quite damp conditions.  If you'd ask me where it does best, I'd say moist soil in light shade, but it looks good in a variety of settings. 

 

Two flower stems munched by deer
March 5, 2024

On top of its ease of siting, Golden Ragwort is also easy to transplant and grow.  Best of all, it is fairly resistant to deer and other critters grazing on it.  I've never noticed signs of rabbits munching and the vole damage I've seen seemed to be almost accidental from their runs running nearby.  There is one time of year when the deer seem to snack on it in our yard: that is when the flower stalks are pushing up, before they bloom.  I've hypothesized that the flower stalks must have less of the defensive chemicals than the foliage has overall.  In any event, if we remember to spray deer deterrent on the plants during this relatively brief period of time, the deer seem to leave the plants strictly alone.  If we forget the deer spray?  Well, the plants bloom anyway, just lower and later in the season.

Besides deer, Golden Ragwort can help with other pests in the garden.  In the native plant community, there is a growing awareness that some native plant species can help keep invasive plants at bay.  Golden Ragwort is one of those species.  Several years ago, Nancy Lawson, the Humane Gardener, wrote a post "How to Fight Plants with Plants" describing how she first observed this happening in her own garden, with Golden Ragwort keeping Garlic Mustard from taking over.  In our garden, I find little or no Japanese Stilt Grass, one of the worst invasives in our yard, in the area where Golden Ragwort grows thickly.

Golden Ragwort seeds
April 22, 2024

What are the downsides of Golden Ragwort?  There are always a few downsides, right?  Well, this plant does like to seed itself around a bit.  It's easy to pull out the seedlings - and they make a great source of new plants to increase your own plantings or to gift to friends - but you will probably find some seedlings around.

Because of its strong growth habits, Golden Ragwort is absolutely capable of overpowering a "shy" or slow-growing plant nearby.  I would not, for example, plant it with bloodroot.  It does do well, however, with several of the fall asters and other such strong growers.

Fading Golden Ragwort blooms juxtaposed
with newly opening Viburnum blossoms
April 18, 2024

The last downside is that this plant's "ugly phase", the time period when it's done blooming, it's forming seeds, and its flower spikes are drying up and turning brown, occurs just as the rest of the garden is swinging into full spring bloom.  While that can be a great thing, because the visual focus moves on to other plants, it can also be disconcerting to have "dead blooms" during peak garden bloom time.  If neatness is important to you, you can always cut the spent flower stalks off, disposing of them or putting them on a brush pile where birds would still have access to the seeds.  The basal rosettes will soon plump up nicely and you'll have a pleasing ground cover for the remainder of the year. 

Next comes my favorite part of talking about any native plant - the animal community it belongs to!  Not surprisingly, given that there aren't a lot of perennials blooming at this time of year, a lot of pollinators and other insects are drawn to Golden Ragwort.  A brief look through the photos I've taken over the last two years shows at least 25 different insect species using this plant - and I know I didn't catch photos of all the insects I saw.  Here are a few highlights, chosen to show the variety of insects drawn to Golden Ragwort.....

Three-cornered Alfalfa Hopper
March 12, 2024

Not all insects that use Golden Ragwort are using the flowers.  One of the first insects I saw last spring was this Three-cornered Alfalfa Hopper (Spissistilus festinus), a species of treehopper that is known to feed on a wide variety of plants.  Treehoppers suck sap to feed, but I saw no sign of any damage to the plant from its feeding actions.  This individual probably overwintered as an adult.

Syrphid fly
March 14, 2024

I commonly see syrphid flies of several species feeding at Golden Ragwort blooms or hovering around the plants.  I don't know the exact species of this individual, but it's in the genus Syrphus, one of many syrphid fly groups whose larvae are voracious aphid predators.  Since this individual is not feeding, it may actually be scouting for a site to lay eggs.  A single syrphid fly larva can consume up to 400 aphids as it grows, so these are great "neighbors" to have in your garden.  Syrphid flies tend to overwinter as pupae either on plants, in the leaf litter, or in the soil.

Syrphid fly laying an egg next to aphids
on Golden Ragwort
March 15, 2024

This syrphid fly, also a Syrphus sp., is almost assuredly laying eggs.  I have a sequence of photos of this individual which I love because, if you zoom in really close, you can see several (green) aphids just to the left of the tip of her abdomen.  Mom's making sure her babies will have their meals served fresh upon their arrival!

Cellophane Bee
March 25, 2024

This photo just makes me smile.  Can you imagine visiting restaurants so replete with food that you end up literally coated with it as you eat?  Well, when I phrase it that way, it sounds rather gross...but this bee looks like she's whole-heartedly enjoying her meal.  This is a cellophane bee (Collettes sp.), one of the native bees that builds a solitary nest in the ground.   Cellophane bees coat the walls of their nests with a polyester secretion to protect their developing young, hence the name cellophane bee.

Blueberry Digger Bee
March 16, 2024

Another native bee I always love to see each spring is the Blueberry Digger Bee (Habropoda laboriosa), a.k.a. the Southeastern Blueberry Bee, which looks like a small bumble bee.  This powerhouse ia a buzz pollinator and a specialist in pollinating blueberry blossoms.  It may, however, nectar at other flowers, as this one is doing.  According to Bugguide, in her adult lifetime, a single female Blueberry Digger Bee may visit around 50,000 blueberry flowers, producing over 6000 blueberries by her actions.  These bees only fly for a few weeks in the spring; their adulthood is timed to coincide with the bloom season of blueberries.  As is common for many of the solitary bees, there is only one generation each year.  Not surprisingly, given their name, this species nests in the ground.

Damselfly, March 20, 2024

Where flowers attract pollinators and other insects, predators will follow.  This damselfly is a good example.  Dragonflies and damselflies have excellent eyesight and can be hard to sneak up on to photograph...which is another way of saying that I'm sorry for the poor quality of this photo!

Greater Bee Fly
March 31, 2023

This cute little teddy-bear of an insect is a bee fly, specifically a Greater Bee Fly (Bombylius major).  Don't let its cute looks deceive you:  bee flies are parasitoids on solitary bee species.  The female Greater Bee Fly flicks her eggs into the nest openings of ground-nesting solitary bees or lays her eggs on the flowers she visits.  When the eggs hatch, the larvae are mobile and either hitch a ride back to the nest on the female bee, or move into the nest from where the egg was laid near the entrance.  Once inside the bee's burrow, the bee fly larvae eat up the stores of pollen and nectar that the mother bee has stored for her larvae, as well as feeding on the bee larvae themselves.  The bee fly then pupates in the bee's nest and emerges in the spring.  This is an example of one of nature's feedback loops that helps keep species in balance with each other and with plant resources.

 

Path of Phyllocnistis insignis, a leafminer moth, 
on the upper surface of a Golden Ragwort leaf
June 25, 2023

You will frequently see the tracery of a leafminer mine on one of the Golden Ragwort leaves.  Leafminers, which may be tiny moths, flies, or wasps, are very host specific and are often associated with only one or a few species of plants.  Phyllocnistis insignis, a tiny moth with no common name, is the leafminer that uses Golden Ragwort leaves.   It does not harm the plant at all.  If you look closely at the winter foliage photo near the beginning of this post, you'll also see a leafminer mine on one of the leaves.

Although I'm always tempted to bore folks to tears by showing photos of ALL the insects I've seen using a particular plant, I think I'll close with just one more.

Camouflaged Looper
April 5, 2024

Camouflaged Loopers, the caterpillar of the Wavy-lined Emerald (Synchlora aerata), are common in our yard from spring through fall.  They are masters of disguise, covering themselves with bits of petal from the flowers they are eating.  The adult moth is a beautiful light green with delicate white markings, although I see the adults much less frequently than I see the caterpillars.  While these caterpillars do eat petals, they're relatively small and they do only cosmetic damage.  Honestly, I love finding them - I always feel like I've found a little treasure.

Speaking of treasures, that's what I consider Golden Ragwort in my garden.  

Where can you find this beauty if you want to add some to your garden?  Well, I've never seen it at a standard nursery or big box store, but I do see it regularly at native plant nurseries, native plant sales, and online in the inventory of native plant companies.  Because Golden Ragwort reseeds nicely, it may be available at local Master Gardener sales, too.  In fact, if you're really lucky, a friend may share some with you...or you may find a clump growing naturally in your yard.  That's how I got introduced to this plant here in SE Virginia!

Whether you choose to grow this plant in your garden or to just admire it when you see it growing wild, you'll know what a great native plant those golden blooms are signaling when their sunshiny glow catches your eye.

Books that Expanded My Outlook in 2023

So I shared brief summaries of the environmental books that I read in 2024 in my last post, but I kept thinking about some of the excellent books I read in 2023, too.  Adding them all to one post seemed too clunky, so I decided to wax enthusiastic over my 2023 reads in this separate post.

Looking over my 2023 list, I was struck by how much more "natural history" I read than in 2024.

The Hidden Life of Trees:  The Illustrated Edition, by Peter Wohlleben, Greystone Books Ltd./David Suzuki Institute, 2015/2016/2018. 

   The text in this edition is abridged from the original (and I still need to find and read the original), but the photographs are sublime.  This book is an excellent and easily readable introduction to forest ecology, incorporating many of the recent breakthroughs in our knowledge. (Note:  Peter Wohlleben is an author and has worked for the forestry commission in Germany for over 20 years.  He now manages a forest academy and a natural woodland in Germany.)

What did I gain from reading this book?  Just opening this book and looking at the gorgeous photos relaxes me.  It is absolutely beautiful.  More than simply being a "pretty face", though, this book was a great summary of the workings of forests.

Rooted: Life at the Crossroads of Science, Nature, and Spirit, by Lyanda Lynn Haupt,  Little, Brown Spark/Hachette Book Group, 2021.

    Rooted is very different from the other books that I have talked about here.  It is based in science, but it is also part philosophy, part spiritual guidance, and part nature guide.  Weaving in quotes from a wide variety of people like Mary Oliver, John O'Donoghue,  Robert Macfarlane, Merlin Sheldrake, and Richard Louv, this book is a rich tapestry from which to draw inspiration and a deep sense of connection with the natural world.

What did I gain from reading this book?  As I read this book, I felt a variety of strands from my life and my reading come together in new ways, highlighting possibilities and encouraging changes in the way I relate to the natural world.  After I finish reading a book, assuming I decide to keep it, I store each one in a  different area, based on how I think I'll access or use it in the future:  plant or animal reference book, general ecological principles, environmental commentary, gardening, poetry, and so forth.  This book is one of the few I keep at my bedside so that I can dip into it for inspiration and rejuvenation when I'm feeling my well run dry.

 

Garden Allies: The Insects, Birds & Other Animals That Keep Your Garden Beautiful and Thriving, by Frederique Lavoipierre, Timber Press, Portland, Oregon, 2021.

    A chapter subheading sums up this book well:  "Actors on Your Garden's Stage".  While other books I read in 2023 talked about all the insects and other animals that share life in and on trees, this book does the same for our gardens.  If you read this book, you'll recognize many, many more of the "little  guys" you see in your garden.  (Note:  Frrederique Lavoipierre has a Masters Degree in Biology with an emphasis on ecological principles of sustainable landscaping;  she was written and worked in this field in numerous capacities.)

What did I gain from reading this book?  Garden Allies was a wonderful introduction to a wide variety of the beings that we see in our yards and gardens.  It would be especially useful for someone wanting to learn more about the variety of "bugs" they encounter in their garden.

Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypse, by Dave Goulson, Harper (HarperCollins), 2021.

    For me, this is simply the best book on what's going on with insect declines.  Not only is there good information on insects themselves, there is excellent background on pesticides and changing farming practices, how artificial fertilizers affect insects, the effects of climate change, and the surprising problem of light pollution.  One of the most memorable sections of this book was Goulson's imaginative trip 50-60 years into the future, pondering what life might be like then if we didn't manage to protect insects now.  The last section of this book is titled "What Can We Do?" and, in it, Goulson outlines specific tasks that we can each do to help protect insect populations.  (Note:  Dave Goulson is Professor of Biology at the University of Sussex in Great Britain.)

What did I gain from reading this book?  Simply put, while Milman's book, The Insect Crisis, was good, this book was excellent at defining the problem of insect decline and also, critically, on giving us concrete suggestions that we each can do to avert the "insect apocalypse".

The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet, by Michael E. Mann, PublicAffairs (Hachette Book Group), 2021.

    Michael Mann is a climate scientist who has, for decades, been at the forefront of trying to awaken our country to the looming reality of the climate crisis.   This book is about the history of our understanding about global warming and the history of the fight against action to solve this extreme threat to our world.   This is a call to action, and Mann emphasizes that it is NOT too late to act; he helps us see the way forward.  He is adamant that solving the climate crisis will take more than individual action, and he points us in the direction we need to work. (Note:  Michael E. Mann is a Professor of Atmospheric Science at Penn State.)

What did I gain from reading this book?  Having read about Mann's climate work for decades, I found it fascinating to read his story of how climate policies have been submarined by the fossil fuel industry over the years.  The tactics the industry has used have been impressively effective.  Mann himself has been personally vilified in the industry's quest to "Damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead!"  We don't think of scientists as warrior heroes, but Mann has been at the forefront of this battle, fighting for the future for all of us.   

The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year, by Margaret Renkl, Spiegel & Grau, New York, 2023.

    Accompanied by a series of delightful artworks depicting nature, this book is a collection of thoughtful and poignant essays on the wildlife all around us in our home landscapes.  Tales of ecstasy and tragedy, musings filled with love and concern, every time I think of reading this book, I reflexively smile.  (Note:  Margaret Renkl is the author of several books and a contributing writer for the New York Times.)

What did I gain from reading this book?  This book gave me beauty and richness and a sense of camaraderie with the author.

   

The Hidden Company That Trees Keep: Life from Treetops to Root Tips, by James B. Nardi, Princeton University Press, 2023.

    When I look at a tree, I look for the animals in and around it, too.  Until I read this book, I usually saw just birds, squirrels, and maybe a few caterpillars.  In this book, Nardi goes much deeper, showing the interconnected webs of hundreds of organisms that are supported by each tree and that support the tree, as well.  He takes each part of the tree and describes the other organisms interacting with that part specifically:  leaves, twigs & buds, the circulatory system, the trunk, the roots, the flowers & fruits.  Who makes galls?  How do trees respond to insect or disease attacks?  What animals help the trees protect themselves?  The richness and diversity Nardi describes are breathtaking. (Note:  James Nardi is a research scientist in biology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.)

What did I gain from reading this book?  I love taking walks around our yard and photographing every animal I can find, big or small.  Many of the animals I find are small...and odd looking to my eyes.  This book helped me understand the complex interactions between the animals I observe and the trees in our yard.  I underlined so much as "important - I want to remember this" that there's hardly a page I haven't marked in some way!

 

Wildscape: Trilling Chipmunds, Beckoning Blooms, Salty Butterflies, and Other Sensory Wonders of Nature, by Nancy Lawson, Princeton Architectural Press, 2023.

    Evocative is the best word I can come up with to describe Nancy Lawson's latest book.  In the grand scheme of things, her Maryland garden doesn't lie all that far from our southeast Virginia one, so she almost feels like a next door neighbor as she talks about the plants and animals in her yard.  And the stories she tells!  Flea beetles helping monarchs in their quest for protective chemicals from milkweeds.  Chipmunks and mice spreading mycorrhizal fungi that connect and nurture plants.  The difference between the songs of "city birds" and "country birds" in the white-throated sparrow population.  The rich discoveries in this book give an increased depth to my experiences in the landscape. (Note: Nancy Lawson is an author, conservationist, and lecturer.)

What did I gain from reading this book?  Nancy Lawson has the gift of loving the unloved - and helping me to love them too.  I see certain plants and animals with new eyes after reading her books or listening to her lectures.  In this book, she took me on a fascinating nature walk, helping me decode some of the behavior or animal traces that I see...or hear...or smell...or touch in the landscape, while helping me appreciate the complexity of plant-animal relationships even more deeply. 

So many books, so little time.....

I hope you're able to find the time to pick up one or more of these books so you can enjoy them too.

Books That Enlarged My Outlook in 2024

Thanks to an annual challenge published by the reading challenge group, The 52 Book Club, I have started reading a LOT more in the last several years.  While most of the books I've read have been fiction, I have also read some interesting non-fiction along the way - and, of course, some of my favorite non-fiction books have to do with the environment,  I thought I'd share my favorite environmental reads from 2024.

The Nation of Plants, by Stefano Mancuso, Other Press LLC, New York, 2019/2021.  

    Sometimes I read a book that completely shifts a facet of how I understand the world.  This small book created such a shift in me.  I've always considered animals to be "more advanced" than plants, and thus "more important" somehow.  However, recent research has certainly been expanding our understanding of plants significantly.  Going a step further, this book posits, successfully in my view, that plants are by far the most important living beings on Earth.  "We exist thanks to plants, and we will continue to be able to exist only in their company.  It behooves us to keep this idea clear at all times."  Mancuso starts from that premise and goes on to create a Constitution for The Nation of Plants, imaginatively raising environmental truths to the level of international law.  (Note: Mancuso is a plant neurobiologist at the University of Florence, Italy.)

What did I gain from reading this book?  Reading this book changed my fundamental understanding of the importance of plants compared to animals.

The Insect Crisis, by Oliver Milman, W. W. Norton & Company, 2022.  

    Starting with a brief vision of what would (will?) happen to humans if all insects disappear, Milman goes on to look at the research studies behind recent dire headlines about the significant insect declines being observed.  He shares stories and studies from across the planet.  Then Milman examines the threats that are causing those insect declines, from farming practices to light pollution to global warming, pointing out that many of these threats are voluntary choices we make, so different choices could be made that would be less destructive.  The importance of making those different choices is Milman's ultimate point, a message we should all take to heart.  (Note:  Milman is a British journalist who specializes in the environment.)

What did I gain from reading this book?  In reading this book, I increased my knowledge about the ongoing decline of insects, giving me a deeper commitment to supporting insects and other species in my home's landscape.

    The Silent Earth, by Dave Goulson, was also written about the precipitous decline of insects.  I read this excellent book in 2023 and will discuss it in a post about the books I read that year.

Wilding: Returning Nature to Our Farm, by Isabella Tree, New York Review Books, 2018.

    I've seen this book recommended for years, but it was about an estate in Britain, so I resisted reading it.  What insights could it have that would be of benefit to backyards in the States?  Well, it turns out that this book is chock full of new understandings of ecological processes!  It was amazing.  I'll never look at an ancient tree in the same way again, and I have a much deeper appreciation for the variety of roles that such beings play.  There was information I won't be able to personally use for rewilding (reintroducing large herbivores into the landscape comes to mind) but I found the necessity for their presence and how they impacted the ecosystem to be fascinating.  I highly recommend this book.  (Note:  Isabella Tree is a writer and conservationist who, along with her husband Charlie Burrell, manages the Knepp Estate/Knepp Wildland Project.)

What did I gain from reading this book?  This book probably gave me my single biggest leap forward in understanding ecological processes since Doug Tallamy's Bringing Nature Home.

The Weight of Nature:  How a Changing Climate Changes Our Brains, by Clayton Page Aldern, Dutton (PenguinRandomHouse), 2024.

    We like to think that climate change, a.k.a. global warming, is "out there" and that we can insulate ourselves from it if we're thoughtful and careful...or simply don't give it credence or attention.  Aldern tells us exactly how wrong we are.  He shows us how global warming is changing (all of) our brains, making it harder to think and remember accurately, affecting the decisions we make, making us more prone to violence, giving many of us PTSD, and increasing our exposures to vectors of brain disease.  Climate change is also changing human cultures and language.  (Note:  Aldern is a neuroscientist turned environmental journalist.)

What did I gain from reading this book?  Aldern helped me to understand how ALL of us are already being affected by global warming, mentally and physically.

The Light Eaters:  How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth, by Zoe Schlanger, Harper (HarperCollins Publishers), 2024.

    As I mentioned above when talking about The Nation of Plants, botany has been making huge leaps forward in our understanding of plants.  Schlanger's book takes a deeper look at some of these new discoveries and understandings.  Plants can communicate with each other and with some animals - not in the same way we communicate, but in important ways nonetheless.  Plants can feel when things happen to their bodies.  Plants treat their relatives differently than they treat less closely related individuals.  Plants even have memories.  A lot of these discoveries have the potential to significantly change how we relate with plants, which is a sobering thought indeed.  (Note:  Zoe Schlanger is a staff writer at the Atlantic, where she covers climate change.)

What did I gain from reading this book?  From this book, I gained a clearer knowledge of the recent advances in botany that are changing our fundamental understanding of plants.

How to Love a Forest:  The Bittersweet Work of Tending a Changing World, by Ethan Tapper, Broadleaf Books, Minneapolis, 2024.

    Tapper, a forester, bought a "worn out" forest of 175 acres and is working to restore it to ecological health.  In this book, he discusses the sorts of decisions he has to make to help heal his land, some straightforward, but many nuanced and full of compromise.  Because of all the changes that have been made in our landscape over the last 400 years, restoring a forest is no longer as simple as just leaving it alone to restore itself.  Invasive species must be removed, deer populations managed through careful hunting, and other sometimes hard decisions have to be made.  Tapper talks of the necrosphere, the world of dead and dying organisms, and how vital it is to the health of the forest.  His writing is evocative and haunting.

What did I gain from reading this book?  With a wooded yard, I was excited to find this book and read Tapper's advice about forest management, but I came away with many insights into far more than just forestry.

 

What If We Get It Right?:  Visions of Climate Futures, by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, One World (Penguin Random House), 2024.

What would our lives - and our childrens' and our grandchildren's lives - be like in the future if we were able to stop, even repair, global warming?  These days we hear almost no visions of the future that aren't apocalyptic.  Most of these depressing visions are being encouraged by people who want all of us to give up and to accept the status quo so that they can continue to rake in profits.  What If We Get It Right? takes a brief, but thorough, look at where we are and at where we're headed if we make no meaningful change.   Then Johnson talks with 20 people fighting to guide us to a brighter future.  The book ends with a detailed look at a potential future where we're successfully fighting global warming as well as making other changes to provide a cleaner, healthier, more just future.

What did I gain from reading this book?  I gained hope from reading this book.  Hope, and knowledge of the work being done in many different fields to move us forward into a brighter, but not a warmer, future.

There are so many fascinating books being published.  These are the few that I read in 2024.  What books have you been reading, and what have you been learning from them?  I'd love to hear about them in your comments.

 

The Restorative Magic of Rewilding

There's not a lot I can do to affect the outcome of global warming or to stop the biodiversity crisis.  That fact tends to keep me awake at night.  However, "not a lot I can do" is not the same as "nothing I can do".  I have found a way to make a difference in both crises, even if it is a small difference, and that way is right outside our home.  Even better, every day I can literally see the difference I'm making.

What's making the difference?  Rewilding.  My husband and I are doing our best to let the land we currently steward heal itself, restore itself.  Over the last 5 years, because of our restorative choices, we have gone from seeing no moths and few butterflies or native bees to seeing all of these and more regularly.

Tiny, but mighty. In this photo, the Thin-lined Calligrapher is feeding at Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium angustifolium).   The larvae of this species of syrphid fly are fierce predators of aphids, while the adults pollinate flowers as they feed.

 

What does rewilding our yard entail?  Here are the simple steps that we are taking...or not taking, as the case may be.

1.  Leave the leaves.  Our yard is part of the eastern deciduous forest and it has many large native trees that grew within a forest setting, so they are tall and straight with few low branches.  In the fall, these trees drop LOTS of leaves, which we simply...leave.  Blanketing the ground, the leaves protect the soil from erosion, hold in soil moisture, feed the trees and other plants as they decompose, and provide habitat for an amazing number of animals.  While doing all of that, they also store carbon - and help store more carbon in the soil as they decompose.

As a caterpillar, this beautiful little Red-banded Hairstreak lived in the leaf litter and fed on the fallen leaves of various trees, such as wax myrtle and sumac.  Here it is nectaring at Blue Mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum), a native perennial.

2.  Minimize lawn.  In our case, there was no functional lawn in the yard when we moved in...so we didn't try to add one.  Ours is a shaded yard, which grass doesn't like, so we're choosing not to fight that battle.  If we had a lawn, we'd be managing it as a "freedom lawn", free from pesticides and fertilizers and welcoming low-growing native plants like violets and nimblewill.

3.  Let native vegetation grow naturally.  As new plants appear in the yard, I do my best to identify them.  If they are native, I generally let them grow with little further fuss..  Some of these plants have actually been growing here for years, suppressed and invisible because of decades of mowing.  Other native species have come up from the seedbank in the soil.  Many natives have come from seeds deposited by birds and other animals as they move through our landscape.  Plants like mayapple, frost aster, American pokeweed, rough-leaved goldenrod, nimblewill, and numerous tree and shrub seedlings have appeared "on their own" in one of these ways.

The Late Boneset (Eupatorium serotinum) in this photo is an example of a native that seeded itself into our yard.  I found I loved it almost as much as this Eastern Tiger Swallowtail does, so I transplanted a second one from our daughter's yard and bought 3 more to add to the area.

4.  Remove invasive plants.  Perhaps surprisingly, this is an extremely valuable step.  The importance of native plants is that they have co-evolved with and are eaten by native insects and other native animals, so they support animal life.  Invasive plants, which are aggressive non-natives, don't get eaten and therefore have no limits on their growth and reproduction.  Invasives can take over entire landscapes, smothering the native plants in the process.  Think kudzu, the vine that ate the South.  It's like having plastic plants as far as supporting birds and other wildlife are concerned.

The lush green grass that's carpeting this woodland floor is actually invasive Japanese Stilt Grass.  An annual that seeds heavily, stilt grass rapidly takes over and suppresses almost all other vegetation.  Nothing eats it, so the forest floor essentially becomes a green desert where it grows.  We had a fair amount of stilt grass, which I have worked hard to suppress by hand pulling.  There will always be some, but right now it's easy to keep under control as I work on other things around the yard.

5.  Avoid using pesticides (including insecticides and rodenticides), fungicides, herbicides, and artificial fertilizers.  ("-cide"means "to kill").  Your rewilding landscape will re-establish its own balances and counterbalances, remaining much healthier than it ever could be by using toxins and artificial chemicals within it.  The only exception to this rule is the judicious use of specific herbicides, if necessary, to help remove particularly problematic invasive plant species.

Doing its best to imitate a half-eaten stem, this inchworm is one of many caterpillars that now call our yard home...that is, they call it home until they get eaten or until they pupate and change into moths or butterflies.   Inchworms are the larvae of geometrid moths;  this one is feeding on Rough-leaved Goldenrod.  Dr. Doug Tallamy reports that 95% of all woodland birds raise their young on insects, especially caterpillars.  If you want birds, you have to have caterpillars.   If you want caterpillars, you can't use insecticides.

This is what happens when you "sit on your hands" and don't use insecticides.  See that little orange "bug"?  That's an oleander aphid on swamp milkweed...being eaten by the larva of a lacewing!  There was a pretty good crowd of oleander aphids for a little while, but the lacewings and syrphid flies moved in and feasted.  Within a couple days, the oleander aphids were gone.  If you want lacewings and syrphid flies to do your pest control, you can't use insecticides...or even squash or wash off the aphids.

6.  Plant native plants that fit our specific ecosystem community.  In our eastern deciduous woodland yard, for example, we have added blueberries, beauty berries, Christmas ferns, bloodroot, mayapple, and pawpaw, among others.

Here a Variegated Fritillary is laying an egg on a decrepit looking Common Violet (8/3/24).

7.  Observe what's going on!  It's so common for gardeners to be "all work & no play" in their gardens, but I consciously and regularly take time to walk around, just to look and learn - and to take photos.  This is how I find new species appearing and it's an important way I figure out how different plants and animals are interacting.

A case in point.....

There haven't been many, but each summer or fall I usually find a monarch caterpillar or two on the Swamp Milkweed (Asclepius tuberosa) that I have planted around the yard.  I found this one and a sibling in early September.  True to form, after a few days the caterpillars disappeared.  I always hope they've pupated and flown off successfully, but it's rare for me to know with any certainty.

In this case, I was luckier than usual.  At the end of October, I noticed this little bit of "debris" in amongst the seed heads of this Late Boneset (Eupatorium serotinum), located about 15' away from the swamp milkweed where I'd observed the monarch caterpillars 7 weeks earlier.  If you look closely, you'll see that this is an empty pupa, with the monarch having successfully hatched.   Presumably, by the time I found this bit of evidence, the monarch was well on its way to Mexico.

8.  Learn.  Then learn some more.  There are so many fantastic resources these days, from books to YouTube videos, from our local native plant societies to online seminars, from native plant nurseries to websites, from podcasts to Facebook groups.  Fellow wildlife gardeners and rewilders can be especially fun to learn with and from.

After years of seeing this book, I finally read it this summer - and it was amazing.  It's about an English estate whose owners were losing money in traditional agriculture, so they decided to "wild" it.  Even though the species discussed are British, the concepts are universal and I learned an incredible amount from reading it.  I'll never look at an ancient, half dead tree the same way again.

9.  Put up signage in your yard to showcase what you are working to accomplish.

We put up this "real estate" box near the road to share updates about why and how we are rewilding our yard.  I try to put out new updates several times a year.

10.  Share news of your discoveries and successes with others, through photos and Facebook posts and conversations.  Who knows?  You may even want to start your own blog!

August, 2023, was the first time we saw this beautiful species in our yard.  It's called a Common Buckeye and the caterpillars feed on Wild Petunia (Ruellia sp.) and Plantain (Plantago sp.), among a few other species, both of which we now have in our yard.   Here the adult is nectaring at Hairy Elephant's Foot (Elephantopus tomentosus).

Are my husband and I making a difference?  Yes, I know we are.  

From rarely seeing any insects when we first moved in (fall 2019), to documenting over 550 species of animals in the yard during the last 2 years, it's obvious that our yard is now supporting much more biodiversity.  The majority of those newly documented species are the all important insects.  Does that mean we are overrun with "bugs"?  Not at all!  I actually have to look hard to see many of the insects living here. A huge proportion of insects, it turns out, are predators on other insects, working to keep our little ecosystem balanced and functioning smoothly.

Not only are we making a visible difference through our choices, this is frankly fun.  We see small iridescent green bees and big yellow striped swallowtails, robber flies and lacewings, tree frogs and skinks.  A wide variety of birds hang out in our yard, providing a background chorus for much of the year.  Our grandsons are becoming excellent birders and sharp observers of the natural world.

We can't save the entire world by ourselves, but we can do our best to save our little corner of it.  The more of us working together on wildlife gardening, even rewilding, the larger our impact will be.

An Eventful Week in the Abbott Annex of Homegrown National Park

 What a week it's been!

Last Wednesday, an immature Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) caught, killed, and ate a Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) right outside my office window.  Yes, I felt bad for the dove...but the hawk has to eat, too.  It seemed really hungry and stayed in that same spot, eating nonstop, for over 90 minutes.

A new species of firefly has started flashing in the yard lately, during the time immediately after dark.  Unfortunately, I don't have any photos to share.  We noticed them Friday night, when our cable went out due to a storm.  With no internet to distract us, we sat on the front porch watching the storm - and serendipitously noticed the fireflies.  This species seems to flash in a fairly long, horizontal single flash - no "J dip".  I haven't been able to find an adult during the day yet; I'm hoping to so that I can try to identify which species this is.

This evening I thought I might re-enact my childhood and catch a couple in a jar, look at them up close, and then release them...but either fireflies have gotten a lot more elusive or I've gotten a lot worse at catching them.  It didn't help that it was lightly raining, thunder was grumbling, and there were occasional flashes of lightning in the sky.  My heart just wasn't in the project.  I kept seeing headlines that read, "68 Year Old Woman Struck By Lightning As She Tried To Catch Fireflies In A Jar".  I guess it would make a good family history story, though.

A new-to-the-yard firefly species would bring our yard total up to 4 different species of fireflies.

The eggs of the Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia sialis) have hatched.  Not only are Mom and Dad Bluebird busy getting food for the chicks, but there's a juvenile hanging around that I think may be from an earlier clutch.

Right outside the bluebird box, the berries on our large American Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana) have started to change color, and the birds are eating them as fast as they ripen.  Note the bright pink remnants of a berry cluster?  THAT bunch didn't last long!  

Cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis) seem to be very common consumers, as do the Bluebirds themselves.  Blue Jays (Cyanocitta cristata) tried to come in to snack on the berries, too, but the Bluebirds were having none of that, thank you very kindly.  They were  extremely vigorous in driving the jays away.  The Bluebirds didn't seem to mind the Cardinals, though.  I saw one juvenile Eastern Towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus) hop into the bush, but a human visitor scared him away before I could see if he was just passing through or if he was actually there to eat.  And, if the latter, whether he would upset the Bluebirds.

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to see a Variegated Fritillary (Euptoieta claudia) bopping all around the back yard, laying eggs on a large number of Violets (Viola sororia).  I've understood for years that violets are the host plants for fritillaries, but I've never seen any sign of caterpillars on any violets that I've grown.  I'm looking forward to being a fritillary grandparent now!

The Variegated Fritillary took a few moments to relax from her labors and I was able to snap a photo - not a good one, but still enough to let you know what she looks like in general.  She was about the size of a Painted Lady or Red Admiral.

Note:  Apparently this species of fritillary differs from many of the other fritillary species in having additional host plants besides violets.  According to iNaturalist, in our yard the other host plants would be Plantain (Plantago sp.), Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum), and possibly Yellow Passionvine (Passiflora lutea), since 3 other Passiflora species are listed as host plants.

Shortly after I lost sight of the Variegated Fritillary, a Spicebush Swallowtail (Papilio troilus) zipped in and seemed to lay eggs on the Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) by the back shed.  I was able to capture a photo of the butterfly, but I didn't catch her "in the act".  Now I know, though, that I'm likely to see the folded leaves that signal Spicebush Swallowtail caterpillars in the near future.  

As I meander in the yard this summer, I feel like I'm seeing an exciting increase in insect species, especially in butterflies and moths.  So far this year I've seen Spicebush Swallowtails (Papilio troilus), a Pipeline Swallowtail (Battus philenor), Tulip-tree Beauties (Epimecis hortaria), 2 species of Underwing Moths, Baltimore Snouts (Hypena baltimoralis), and over 15 other moth species that are "new to the yard".  Those are just the ones I've been able to take photos of that were clear enough to identify.  There have been many, many more moths and butterflies than fluttered away without posing for me.  And I'm only seeing the adults, the ones that weren't turned into baby birds or other animals when they were caterpillars!

I recently finished reading Oliver Milman's The Insect Crisis: The Fall of the Tiny Empires That Run the World, published in 2022.  It was a sobering read and reinforced my passion for rewilding our little space, working to create a bit of habitat where native plants and insects have a chance to live and flourish.

We started caring for this yard in the fall of 2019.  Over the course of that first year, I saw just a couple butterfly and skipper species - and no moths, despite being outside pulling Japanese Stiltgrass for what felt like days on end.  

The difference between then and now is so incredibly heartening.  It gives me hope.  We've removed invasive species, left the leaves, left native seedlings that were "planted" by birds, and we've also planted more native plants.  We haven't sprayed insecticides or herbicides.  That's it.  Nothing fancy or complicated.  That's been our management plan as we try to give nature some breathing space to recover.  And our yard has responded: it is infinitely more full of life now than it was 4 years ago.  We CAN have a positive impact.