Green Shrimp Plant (Blechum pyramidatum) is also known by the common names of Wild Hops and Browne’s Blechum and is native throughout Mexico to Northern South America but has spread in sections of Florida, Texas and the Pacific islands. This member of the Acanthus family has an original range that is somewhat uncertain as this plant is well established in many areas of the tropics. Green Shrimp Plant is listed as an invasive species in Florida and care should be taken not to let it naturalize outside of a garden.
Green Shrimp Plant is the host for the Malachite butterfly (Siproeta stelenes) and is listed as an occasional host for the White Peacock butterfly (Anartia jatrophae) although I have never seen this species select Green Shrimp Plant for egg laying. Malachite butterflies are usually found only in the extreme south of Florida and Texas and generally don’t stray as far north as the Tampa Bay region.
Rosinweeds (Silphium) is a genus of 19 North American wildflowers that generally occur in the eastern and southeastern United States. The flowers of these plants are daisy-like and generally yellow in color but sometimes occur in white and the plants can grow anywhere from .5 to 4 meters in height. One species, Simpson’s
Rosinweed (Silphium simpsonii) is known in the wild only in the state of Florida and several other species are also Florida native wildflowers. A number of rosinweed species are listed as threatened or endangered.
Rosinweed is a pretty and long lasting nectar flower that is attractive in informal gardens. Gulf Fritillary butterflies seem to favor this nectar here at MOSI.
What’s in a name?: The genus name derives from the Greek name for a species of North African plant that was prized in ancient times. The flowers of silphium were used in the production of perfume, the plan sap was used to create a type of resin and parts of the plant were widely used in spices and ancient medication. The identity of this plant had been lost to us and the plant may have been lost to extinction due to overgrazing and overharvesting. Some researches suggest that the silphium of ancient times may actually be Giant Tangier Fennel (Ferula tingitana) which also grows in the areas of the Maghreb known for the production of ancient silphium and seems similar to ancient images depicting the plant and has a wide variety of uses.
Yaupon Holly (Ilex vomitoria) is a Florida native small tree that is festooned throughout the winter with brilliant red berries. These bright berries will darken as
they mature and are sure to become a snack for one of the many songbirds that are resident in West Central Florida.
Yaupon holly has been used for centuries as a medicinal plant and a quick glace at the botanical name of Ilex vomitoria might give you an idea of what this plant can do. You can learn more about Yaupon Holly at Floridata.
Known commonly as Starflowers, these clusters of blooms are more often known by their botanical genus Pentas. From the Greek word for ‘five’, pentas usually bear five petals on each flower.
As far as non-native nectar plants go, this is a fantastic plant with is wildly attractive to butterflies. Pentas come in a huge variety of flower colors and sizes from low and mounding to tall and leggy shrubs. In the Tampa Bay area pentas are generally perennial unless we have a particularly harsh winter.
Pentas can thrive in most light conditions from sun to shade although they will bloom better in more sunny areas and they prefer soil conditions moist to average. If you are looking for a definite butterfly favorite to help jumpstart a butterfly garden, pick up a few pentas which are sure to be a hit with your local bugs.
Saltbush (Baccharis halimifolia) is a woody shrub that grows throughout Florida and is often found on the edges of marshes, old fields and disturbed sites.
There are three similar varieties of Saltbush species that occur in Florida and each plant is either male or female. You can distinguish Saltwater False Willow (Baccharis angustifolia) with its needle-like leaves that attach directly to branches without a leaf stalk. Silverling(Baccharis glomerulifolia) has flowers that attach directly to branches without a flower stalk. Saltbush (Baccharis halimifolia) is most common in inland, disturbed sites. Flowers on female plants, like the one pictured, have hair-like bristles that extend beyond the leafy bracts and the end of the flowers which gives the plant a silver, cottony appearance. Male flowers are greenish and rounded.
Saltbush are wonderfully attractive to bees and small butterflies. When in bloom, these shrubs hum with activity and seem to be covered in hundreds of busy bees and tiny butterflies like blues, hairstreaks and skippers. The flowers have a sweet, light fragrance that makes them appealing to gardeners as well.
Saltbush is a wonderful coastal and wetland plant that tolerates a high level of salts. The foliage of these species are toxic to foraging cattle and thus should be avoided in grazing areas.
Southern Pearly Eye (Enodia portlandia) butterflies have a gorgeous cryptic coloring that helps them blend with the trunks of trees. These butterflies are found throughout the swampy forests of the southeast United States and they tend to remain in shady, damp places.
The larvae host on bamboo switch cane (Arundinaria tecta) which grows in thick stands called canebrakes which are found in the moist bottomlands of the forest understory. The larvae can hibernate in their caterpillar form to survive periods of cold weather.
Adults feed on sap, rotting fruit, dung and other non-nectar butterfly foods. With a wingspan up to 2 3/4 inches this butterfly is decent sized but still difficult to spot. Next time you find yourself in a swampy forest, keep and eye out for this beauty.
The Hummingbird Clearwing Moth (Hemaris thysbe) is one of the most asked about insects at the BioWorks Butterfly Garden. This moth moves in the same hovering motions as a hummingbird, is beautifully colorful and is generally seen nectaring around gardens in the late afternoon. If you have ever seen what appears to be a tiny hummingbird about 2 1/2 inches in wingspan in your garden, this just may have been what you saw.
Most butterflies and moths have scales that cover their entire wings. In fact the order Lepidoptera takes its name for the Greek for ‘Scaled-wings’. Butterfly and moth wings are made of two chitonous membrane layers that are supported by a network of tiny veins. Over those membranes overlap scales and setae (hairs) that help to provide structure and strength for the wing. These tiny wing scales are individually colored which provides the color and patterns on the wing of the butterfly. With Hummingbird Clearwing Moths, portions of their wings lack scales which creates windows in their wings where the the clear chitonous membrane at the center of the wing is visible.
Hummingbird Clearwing larvae host on Honeysuckle (Lonicera), snowberry (Symphoricarpos), hawthorns (Crataegus), cherries and plums (Prunus), and European cranberry bush (Viburnum opulus).
The 'Blue butterfly pea' (Clitoria ternateais) is also known as 'Asian pigeonwings'. Native to portions of Africa and Asia this plant has been introduced in some tropical areas of the US including Florida, Texas and California.
Not only does it have a beautiful, if somewhat suggestive, flower but this perennial vine is also a particularly delicious host for Longtailed skippers. At intervals along the leaves you will see the telltale signs of caterpillars: a tiny damaged bit of leaf that has been carefully folded over to make a nice larval hidey hole. This photo features caterpillar made leaf damage and the shells of three tiny skipper butterfly eggs
This delightful vine is currently climbing a coral bean tree in our Historic Tree Grove and also can be seen bedecking a trellis in the garden behind BioWorks Butterfly Garden.
Butterflies eat mostly nectar but supplement their diet with a lot of other stuff and not all of that stuff seems appealing to us. The Zebra Longwing (Heliconius charitonius) butterfly in the video is feeding on bird droppings.
Yes, it's gross but urine and dung contain many salts and nutrients that butterflies need to survive, especially male butterflies who need to replace salts and nutrients they lost in the sperm package when mating.
Video by: Carolyn R. taken in the Backwoods Forest Preserve at MOSI
Butterfly eggs are as different from each other as one species of butterfly appears to another. Some are laid in large groups, some in pairs or small groups and some one to a plant. Found in a rainbow of colors and myriad of shapes it really helps to know what plant you are looking at to determine what an egg might be. Butterflies are specialists that can usually only consume one or a few closely related plants as caterpillars so knowing what plants are host plants can help you identify to which butterfly a group of eggs might belong.
Only one of the butterflies, a monarch, appears to have had any trouble emerging and inflating wings. Considering our own experiences raising caterpillars in the lab at MOSI, this seems like a pretty good success rate. The butterfly that struggled to inflate its wings may have been affected by the zero-gravity environment, but it seems more likely it simply had developmental problems in chrysalis, as some butterflies do. Scientists may be able to learn more when the butterflies are brought back from space this winter.
Monarch Watch was able to post some spectacular videos, a couple of which are shown below. In the first video, a butterfly struggles to emerge from chrysalis. This particular one was a "floater" - the caterpillar did not manage to attach itself to the silk pad when pupating. We should note that being a "floater" did not impact this butterfly's ultimate ability to emerge and inflate its wings, despite the wild ride it took along the way!
Having watched many butterflies emerge, I can say that it seems to have been a little more difficult for this one than those I've observed on earth. Without the chrysalis being attached to anything, the butterfly couldn't really grab onto anything to pull itself free. That being said, out in the real world, this butterfly would most likely have never made it this far. If it had fallen while pupating and landed on the ground, ants or other predators would have carried it off before it ever had a chance to develop.
In this next video, the same butterfly is seen working to inflate its wings. This video is shown at 5 times the normal speed - the total time covered by the video is almost 8 minutes. Again, it seems to me it might have been more difficult for the butterfly to perform this process than it would have been on earth.
There are more videos and plenty of photos of the monarchs available at Monarch Watch's website - be sure to check them out!
What's Next? You may be wondering what's next for these pioneering space butterflies. Well, the answer is, what you see is what you get. These butterflies will live out the rest of their lives in these rearing chambers. Along the left wall, nectar feeding stations have been opened for them, so they do have food. However, no host plants are available for them, so even if they should mate, there would be no where to lay eggs and start the process over again. Instead, they will live the next few weeks or so flying amongst their own frass (that's caterpillar poo to you and me!) until their lives wind down to an end.
The rearing chambers and all contents, including butterflies, will be brought back to earth when the next shuttle mission (STS-130) visits the ISS in early 2010. If more information is available then, we'll be sure to let you know. In the meantime, you can continue to follow the butterflies yourself from any of the following links.
About the Author: Jill Staake is a volunteer at the MOSI BioWorks Butterfly garden who also writes the blog My Florida Backyard which is her story of transforming her suburban yard into a habitat for wildlife and her observations. Jill is also a regular contributor to the popular Tampa blog Sticks of Fire where she publishes posts about gardening in Tampa Bay.
Winter Cassia (Cassia bicapsularis) is yet another of the plants to bear the irritatingly common name of "Butterfly Bush" that refers to about a dozen unrelated species. This cassia is native to the tropical areas of the Americas and is so named Winter Cassia because it puts on a showy bloom of yellow each winter. When blooming, the Winter Cassia is a mass of eye catching yellow that is sure to turn heads and generate lots of requests for cuttings and seed sharing.
Also an excellent host plant for Sulphur butterflies, this shrub is fast growing but can be kept smaller with judicious pruning. If left, the shrub will develop into a ball of Cassia some 10 feet tall with a similar diameter. Caterpillars hosting on this plant will be green in color most of the year but the larvae will turn bright yellow when consuming the winter flowers. Winter Cassia is host to the Sleepy Orange (Eurema nicippe), Cloudless Sulphur (Phoebis sennae) and Orange-barred Giant Sulphur (Phoebis philea) which are all seasonally on display at MOSI.
Cassias are vigorous plants that grow rapidly and can become quite unruly, so expect a great deal of pruning if you want to keep this shrub anywhere near dainty. This particular species of cassia is native to South America, but there are plenty of Florida native species around if you prefer gardening with local plants. This variety of cassia makes an excellent host plant since its very quick growth helps it to recover rapidly from any damage feeding caterpillars may cause.
Porterweeds are a group of about 65 annual and perennial herbs and shrubs in the genus Stachytarpheta. The name derives from the Greek stachys (spike) and tarphys (thick) which refers to the thick flower spikes that produce blooms on these plants. Porterweeds are used as a medicinal plant in the Caribbean and one particular species is used to make a foaming brew that is used to reduce fevers. There are several varieties of Porterweed that can be found in the MOSI gardens.
Native Florida Jamacian Porterweed(Stachytarpheta jamaicensis) is a prostrate species that grows in low spreading mounds up to about a foot ro two feet in height. Although it is considered a Florida Native, Jamacian Porterweed was possibly brought over to Florida with early Bahamian settlers. Porterweeds are wonderfully attractive to butterflies as nectar plants and are an excellent addition to a butterfly garden. Jamacian Porterweed blooms throughout the year but may die back significantly during a freeze.
Blue Porterweed(Stachytarpheta cayennensis) syn (Stachytarpheta urticifolia) is an upright variety of porterweed that is also very attractive to butterflies. The plant may grow four to six feet in height and this species re-seeds readily, spreading rapidly. Blue Porterweed is a favorite of the Long Tailed Skipper butterfly which can often be found buzzing this plant in numbers. This variety is native to tropical areas of Asia and forms a woody shrub. This non-native variety has become a problem in some areas of Florida and has been listed as an invasive species. Identify this species as non-native by its height and deeply quilted leaves.
Pink Porterweed (Stachytarpheta mutabilis) is a variety that is native to South America but does very well in the climate of South Florida. In the Tampa Bay area this plant may struggle during colder months and can be killed back entirely by a freeze. The bright pink flowers of this Porterweed are striking but like the flowers of other Porterweed species, each flowers is very fleeting and last about a day on average. The flower-spikes produce flowers from the bottom up and keep blooming up the spike until the coldest parts of winter take hold.
On Nov. 16, caterpillars were launched to the International Space Station aboard space shuttle Atlantis as part of an experiment conducted by BioEd. The experiment included one set of four painted lady caterpillars and one set of three monarch caterpillars in specially-designed rearing chambers. Click here to learn more about the background of this experiment.
A popular question from visitors to any butterfly garden is "How high do butterflies fly?" As of Dec. 1, 2009, the new answer is "About 220 miles above the earth" - some of the caterpillars aboard the ISS have successfully completed the transformation to butterflies!
Now all eyes on are the on the monarchs. All three successfully pupated to chrysalis on Nov. 24, and can be expected to emerge... well, any second now! A few interesting notes about the monarch caterpillars - one of the caterpillars had trouble hooking itself to the silk pad once it pupated, and has existed as a chrysalis in a free-floating state. Another of the pupae seems to have become detached in the last few days and is free-floating as well. It will be interesting to see if this has any effect on the butterflies when they begin to emerge.
Look for another update on the butterflies in space sometime next week. In the meantime, you can follow the progress yourself by using any of the following links.
About the Author: Jill Staake is a volunteer at the MOSI BioWorks Butterfly garden who also writes the blog My Florida Backyard which is her story of transforming her suburban yard into a habitat for wildlife and her observations. Jill is also a regular contributor to the popular Tampa blog Sticks of Fire where she publishes posts about gardening in Tampa Bay.
Frangipani Hawkmoth caterpillar (Pseudosphinx tetrio) is generally found in South America but is occasionally reported in Southern Texas and South Florida. The larvae of this species grow to a rather remarkable size and are very striking with their bright yellow bands, red heads, and mostly black bodies.
This particular specimen was brought to MOSI with a very peculiar problem. It has wandered around in the wrong part of a palm tree and had a head entirely encrusted with sticky palm sap and dirt. I did my best to clear away the mess but too much of the sap had gotten inside the larvae’s mouth and he was not able to eat and finish his journey as a caterpillar.
These caterpillars feed on Frangipani (Plumeria rubra), other Plumeria species and Allamanda species. The larvae are gregarious feeders for the first several instars and can quickly defoliate a plumeria plant in just a few days. Younger caterpillars change dramatically in color with several color forms including one that is mostly yellow with black spots running down the back.
The adult moth is equally large with a wingspan of 5 to 5 1/2 inches and is a mottled brown in color. Like other sphinx moths it can be sighted around dusk nectaring on flowers like periwinkle (Vinca rosea).
Bowers Historic Tree Grove that was landscaped with minimal funds and a lot of hope. Readers Shelley and Monte asked what it looks like today so I ran out and snapped some pictures of the explosion of Cigar Plant (Cuphea) flowers that have taken over and made that barren patch into a riot of color. The plants are getting a bit leggy at the end of the season and it is almost time for a trim. The rocks and driftwood are still there but are much less obvious now.
Green Shrimp Plant (Blechum pyramidatum) is also known by the common names of Wild Hops and Browne’s Blechum and is native throughout Mexico to Northern South America but has spread in sections of Florida, Texas and the Pacific islands. This member of the Acanthus family has an original range that is somewhat uncertain as this plant is well established in many areas of the tropics. Green Shrimp Plant is listed as an invasive species in Florida and care should be taken not to let it naturalize outside of a garden.
Malachite butterfly (Siproeta stelenes) and is listed as an occasional host for the White Peacock butterfly (Anartia jatrophae) although I have never seen this species select Green Shrimp Plant for egg laying. Malachite butterflies are usually found only in the extreme south of Florida and Texas and generally don’t stray as far north as the Tampa Bay region. 
