Salvia 'Victoria Blue' (circa 2008)

(THIS WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN MAY 2008; I tried to edit it and messed it all up) 

 

In the front yard, our little salvia 'Victoria Blue' is blooming.

 

 

 

 

 

Salvia farinacea
'Victoria Blue'

A ladybug and other stuff

Harmonia axyridis

I try to photograph every ladybug we find in our Wildscape so we can submit a report to the Lost Ladybug Project at Cornell University. This is a multi-colored Asian ladybug, an introduced species from Europe. So far, I've contributed 20 images to this research project.

Matelea biflora

Speaking of research projects, I submitted these photos of a purple milkweed vine seedpod (with common milkweed bugs below) and a prairie verbena going to seed to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center's Image Gallery. 
 

Glandularia bipinnatifida

A cool fly...working on ID.

One lone oxblood lily blooming!

Purple clematis

Earlier this spring, I bought a purple leatherflower (Clematis pitcheri) from the Texas Native Plant Society in Boerne. The vine, which grows on our chain-link fence, bloomed recently. And then something broke off a branch, darn it. But then I noticed the beautiful (fluffly!) seed heads. So I carried the branch inside and scanned an image (below). Awhile ago, I finally photographed a close-up. I've submitted both to the Image Gallery at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, where I'm contributing photographer.

Wandering through the Meadow

Look what I spotted on the purple milkweed vine! A monarch caterpillar! But wait a minute...it can't be. Once I started looking a photos of Danaus plexippus caterpillars, I realized I was wrong. For one thing, this child has red tinges of color, which monarch caterpillars don't have. A little nosing around on the Internet, and I found the answer: it's a queen (Danaus gilippus)! 
Another clue: Monarch caerpillars have two sets of tubercles (those antenna-looking appendages) and queens have three. 
I guess it's been a LONG time since I've seen a queen caterpillar. Cool!

Texas bindweed (Convolvulus equitans)

Waiting for help from Jerry Stacy, a fellow Texas Master Naturalist, for the ID of this mystery plant. Aren't the tiny flowers sweet?
UPDATE–What a sleuth! Jerry figured out my mystery plants: Knotweed leaf-flower (Phyllanthus polygonoides). How'd you do that, I asked him. "A big book. Flora of North Central Texas," he wrote back. That IS a BIG book! I've seen it! Thanks, Jerry!

Carolina snailseed (Cocculus carolinus)

I've seen this plant for years and always ignored it. In my email, I asked Jerry if he could ID it, too. "Looks like prostrate euphorbia," he wrote. "Ground spurge." He's right! Euphorbia maculata is "a late-germinating, low growing, mat-producing summer annual," according to Michigan State University's Turf Weeds.net. Another mystery solved! Thanks, Jerry!

Flowers and spiders

The purple clematis vine (Clematis pitcheri) is blooming!

The calylophus is still blooming.

And so are our volunteer dayflowers. They've taken over several patches in our beds, but it's fine with us. Their blooms are so sweet and pretty.

I found this little orbweaver and her web among the mealycup sage branches.

 

And tiny spiderling was traveling between tree branches....

Another mystery solved

Texas queen's-delight

Another plant mystery solved, thanks to one resident expert with the Highland Lakes chapter of the Texas Master Naturalists–Jerry Stacy. I spotted this unusual plant at my parents' house last Sunday. Their home is north of Boerne in Kendall County. I was walking across the rocky land that grows free and saw this leggy thing. It had already bloomed so I couldn't figure it out. I emailed these photos to Jerry, and he wrote back "Queen's-delight." He's right!

Texas queen's delight (Stillingia texana) is in the Euphorbiaceae family, so it's related to snow-on-the-mountain and Texas bullnettle. It's a perennial herb, but I have no clue what it's "good for." According to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the species is also called Texas toothleaf. 

More plants!

We can't resist. We bought more plants in a sale room at an area nursery. In all, we came home with 19 new additions. Salvias, yarrow, rubeckia, ruellia, dwarf myrtle, purple skullcap, maybe coreopsis. By day's end, James had them all in the ground! I am WAY behind on labeling plants in our Wildscape.

At a roadside pottery/ironwork stand, I also bought a wooden table to set out by our hammock. A bargain at $2! We got it home, and I carried it out to the patio so I could wash off the mud and cobwebs. Uh oh. First, I saw the two egg sacs. Then I saw the shiny black legs and body. A black widow mama! She's not there any more, and that's all I'm gonna say. End of story.

Ignored plant has a name

This tiny, plain-looking plant grows here and there in our Meadow. I've ignored it mostly. It just doesn't seem to DO much! Finally, though, I decided I needed to get to know it better. So I emailed this image to Jerry, our plant expert with my Highland Lakes chapter of Texas Master Naturalists. I figured he'd know. He did.

"That little plant is rabbit tobacco (Evax verna)," he replied. "Now you can get to know it."

Well, I tried. There's not much info on this species, other than it's an annual that belongs to Asteraceae (aster family). Oh, and it has another common name: spring pygmycudweed. 


On the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center's website, I looked up other Evax members. For Evax prolifera, I learned that "Rabbit Tobacco has what appear to be wooly hairs on its flowers and stalks. It grows very low to the ground and is a rather inconspicuous plant."


Poor thing...it IS overlooked in the botanical community. I'll have to try and shoot some closer images of its flowers, which are VERY interesting and unique.


MORE PHOTOS, as promised

A quick look around our Wildscape

Lyreleaf sage

Four-nerve daisy

This is one of the prettiest years yet in what I used to call our "salvia" bed. The cedar sage is spreading, growing and blooming like mad. The Texas betony's real happy, too. And the nonnative irises (planted by the previous homeowners) have begun to flower.

Recent rains have fortified my Texas frogfruit, which I transplanted a year or so ago from the street.

Behold, a Texas dandelion!

Blooms and bug stuff

Dandelions hosting a beetle party.

The passionflower vine's blooming.

In the past several weeks, we have noticed numerous caterpillars around our Wildscape that look similar to this one (photographed on a salvia)–black and dead. I saw one on a cement bench. Five (different locations) atop bricks on the exterior of our house. On a rose of Sharon. On a wooden fence. So I asked the experts at Bugguide.net. "Possibly baculovirus...they cause caterpillars to liquefy and eventually splash new virus paricles onto the leaf, which may then be consumed by more caterpillars," replied Ian Stocks. He pointed me to an academic article in the Journal of Invertebrate Pathology: "A newly discovered baculovirus induces reflex bleeding in Heliconius himera." Oh, my!

Woolly butterflybush

Rue's blooming (host plant for black swallowtail).

Weeds, blooms and some natives

Begger's ticks, hedgeparsley (Torilis arvensis)

Catchweed bedstraw (Galium aparine)

Last Sunday, when we worked around the Wildscape, I pulled DOZENS AND DOZENS of hedgeparsley from beneath our elbow bush that falls over the fence and into our neighbor's adjoining property. I had NO CLUE that the species can grow so tall and thick. Over and over again, I reached into the elbow bush branches and ended up pulling out a whole pile of the stuff. Now little critters can get in there and hide better. Before, there was barely any room within the elbow bush thicket because of the hedgeparsley. I also yanked up bedstraw, which has the tinest roots you ever did see.
 

Wild petunia (Violet ruellia)...a polite native that has a sweet purple bloom.

Wild poinsettia (Euphorbia cyanthophora). You've heard of snow-on-the-mountain? Another common name for this species is fire-on-the-mountain. The two are in the same genus.

Drummond's woodsorrel (Oxalis drummondii). I love these delicate plants.

Spiderwort!

Hill Country penstemon (Penstemon triflorus) blooming. Because of recent heavy winds, James propped up the stems with a tomato cage.

Coral honeysuckle

Texas betony, one of my favorite natives. Hummers nectar on the flowers.

Woolly stemodia (Stemodia lanata). Linda, a Master Naturalist in Kingsland, pulled up five or six of these from her garden to give me. Here's hoping they take root!

Volunteer sunflower, likely planted by one of our local squirrel farmers.