In early spring, lawns around here sprout a pretty little native wildflower known as old field toadflax (
Nuttullanthus canadensis). An annual, it is here and gone almost before you realize it, but it is considered a "lawn weed" and, as such, it is not considered desirable by most homeowners.
I find this dainty little flower enchanting.
Old field toadflax is related to snapdragons, which you can see in the shape of the bloom...if you take the time to look closely at it before you mow it down. Perched on the ends of long, slender stems, the tiny blossoms would really have to occur in huge numbers to make a show of any sort, but my "selective wildflower vision" zeroes in on them and magnifies their attractiveness to enjoyable size.
Given my propensity to enjoy what shows up without any effort on my part, I've let the toadflax grow where they appeared in my front flowerbeds, rather than weeding them out with the oak seedlings and dewberry.
When I went out to do my occasional bed weedout on Saturday morning, I noted that the toadflax were done blooming and I thought that perhaps it was time to pull them out to "neaten up" the bed. On the other hand, if I let them remain a bit longer, I could more reliably count on new plants next spring....
As I was weeding and debating this weighty question with myself, I noticed a black caterpillar on the ground near one of the plants. Hmmmm. Another, larger caterpillar was on a nearby plant. Looking a bit further, I noticed a third caterpillar munching away....
By the time I looked at all the plants, I'd found 7 caterpillars!
They were all the same species and they were all either on or right beside the old field toadflax.
Looking at the flower spikes, I noticed that the lower flowers had set seed, dried and were releasing seed. The remains of the upper blooms were still green, but obviously seed was forming. Since these are annual plants, as soon as all the seed is set, the plants will basically dry up and wither away.
When I went inside and looked up the caterpillars in
my handy-dandy caterpillar guide, I decided that these were probably
common buckeye cats (
Junonia coenia), a highly variable species of (butterfly) caterpillar that is known to feed on plants in the snapdragon family, including toadflax.
This discovery lifted up my spirits all weekend long. Isn't nature simply amazing?! This relatively small annual plant blooms, sets seed, and then dies. Rather than waste all that great plant material by simply having it dry up and blow away, Mother Nature arranges to have mama buckeye butterfly stop by and leave a couple eggs. The eggs hatch into tiny caterpillars who, just as the plant is finishing with the foliage, eat up all the leaves and change the plant material into butterflies.
Beauty in flower form turns into beauty in butterfly form. I call that pretty amazing.
4 comments:
I love this post, and the way you word things! "Perched on the ends of long, slender stems, the tiny blossoms would really have to occur in huge numbers to make a show of any sort, but my "selective wildflower vision" zeroes in on them and magnifies their attractiveness to enjoyable size." What a treat to get to experience the native plants in your new state, and the caterpillars that fed on them.
Thank you, Sue! I'm having fun. It's amazing how much there is to learn!
Ima big fan of toadflax and buckeye butterflies too....
really difficult for me to get new and exciting pics of toadflax though....
I took the liberty of searching your blog for additional mentions of buckeyes... Very surprised to learn that they seem less common for you...
Maybe try to grow additional host plants for them?
I grow A LOT of agalinis, plus seymeria and aureolaria.... but... I can't seem to figure out how to get these parasitic plants to grow in the garden.... all that I can do is mark the existing patches.... and avoid disturbing...
agalinis is fairly common... even in Kansas.... unfortunately..... it's such a late bloomer that I've seen it entirely weeded out of meadow gardens by people who didn't value it enough to learn to recognize it before it was gone...
Gaia HATES a tidy garden....
LOL! Yes, Gardens-In-The-Sand, Gaia does indeed hate a tidy garden! Luckily, she never has to worry about that around my place....
Other than specifically planting milkweeds for monarchs, I rarely plant things just for one species, even of butterflies, but I do try to plant natives with wildlife value. For buckeyes, the only other plant I have that I know is a host is frog fruit (Phyla nodiflora).
Having moved to the panhandle of Florida from the wilds of Kansas, I am still learning my native plants here - and you've now introduced me to Agalinis, Seymeria, and Aureolaria, which are all new to me. I will be keeping my eyes open for them. Thank you!
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