MOSI Outside, May 7th CANCELED

The MOSI Outside event scheduled for May 7th has been canceled. This cancellation includes the craft area, vendors and lecture series.

The artist portion of the event and game of chance will continue as planned as part of the Bug-casso event on May 7th at MOSI.

Happy Earth Day!

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At MOSI we celebrated Earth Day by planting a vegetable garden in the Richard T. Bowers Historic Tree Grove with the staff from the Elements and Science to Go stores. After moving over what seemed like endless loads of compost to improve the soil, we planted sweet potatoes, corn, zucchini, cucumber, bush beans, basil, eggplant, watermelon and 7 species of tomatoes. This new garden sits under the George Washington Carver Persimmon tree. This bed is alternately known as the Carver Edible Garden or lovingly as the Garden of Eatin’.

George Washington Carver: George Washington Carver pioneered a concept of  crop rotation to return needed nutrient to the soil depleted by decades of cotton and tobacco. In the agrarian South following the Civil War, this method of crop rotation drastically increased farm production. Carver also developed industrial  applications for the new crops being grown, including over 300 uses for the peanut and extracting pigment from soybeans to replace European textile dyes. Carver was one of the leading African American scientists of his day and served as Agriculture Director at the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute for Negroes which was founded by Booker T. Washington.

The Persimmon Tree: The persimmon (Diospyros) has many species and is cultivated around the world. The persimmon fruit is anywhere from pale yellow-orange to a deep red in color and fruits may be tomato, acorn, or even pumpkin-like in shape. Persimmon fruits are actually a true berry and depending upon the species can be eaten when freshly ripe or may need additional drying time before they are ready to consume. Pies, cookies, puddings and other desserts made from persimmon fruit have a sweet and unique taste. The George Washington Carver Persimmon at MOSI is a seedling from a persimmon tree originally grown by George Washington Carver.

Thanks again to the staff from the stores for he;ping with this great project!

I love a good mystery

Yesterday we had a visit from a MOSI neighbor named Eric and his son Ethan. Along with Eric and Ethan came a curious green caterpillar with a spiked back end and a lateral row of eyespots on each side.

Jill and I ducked down to the office and hauled out the caterpillar reference books and websites. The problem with searching through moth caterpillars for a match is that moth caterpillars are incredibly variable. Many species have more than one color form and a single caterpillar can change color and markings by molting its skin. There are lots of great websites and books for researching caterpillars, but there are just so many possibilities that searching can be a challenge.

To start the search, we begin with what we know about physical characteristics. The spiked back end of the caterpillar narrowed us down to searching through Sphinx Moths. We then used color, shape and markings to help us narrow down the possibilities. The caterpillar was not brought to us with a host plant so we couldn’t use that to help narrow down the search.

We narrowed or search down to just one species- the Tersa Sphinx moth (Xylophanes tersa tersa).

Their larvae have either a green or brown form dotted with eyespots and terminate with a single spiked protrusion. They can consume many types of plants including pentas and Firebush (Hamelia patens) which are both common butterfly garden plants in Florida. The larva bury themselves in leaf litter or loose soil and mulch to form their pupa which will eventually wiggle back to the surface for the adult moth can emerge after metamorphosis.

The adult Tersa Sphinx moth (Xylophanes tersa tersa) looks to have been carved from wood. Tersa Sphinx moths can be found from Florida north to Massachusetts and have a wingspan around 3 inches. Adults can be seen flying right at dusk and searching for nectar plants, especially honeysuckle. Due to their large size and hovering form of flying that are often mistaken for hummingbirds at a distance.

What’s in a Name?: If you break down its scientific name: "xylo" is Greek for wood and "Phanes" was the golden winged being that hatched from the Cosmic Egg that was the source of the universe. In myth Phanes personifies light from chaos. Tersa comes to us from the Latin and means dry or parched, perhaps in reference to the brown coloring of this species.

If you want to search out your own mystery caterpillar identities, try the Discover Life caterpillar identification guide.

Simpson’s Stopper

Simpson's Stopper (Myrcianthies fragrans) is blooming outside the BioWorks Flight Encounter! This native Florida shrub is just a nice green bush for most of the year, but in the spring, it’s suddenly covered with sweetly scented delicate white flowers that are a huge draw for pollinators in the area.

Simpson’s Stopper, also commonly called Twinberry, is hardy to about 25 degrees, making it generally evergreen throughout the winter months. It’s fairly slow growing, and will top out around 15 feet tall or so, although you can easily prune it to suit the space where its planted. This is a nice shrub for areas ranging from full sun to full shade, and it’s very drought tolerant once established. In the fall, this shrub provide nice deep orange berries that songbirds love.

Although this shrub is listed as threatened in the wild, it’s making a real comeback in Florida-Friendly yards around the state. You’ll find it for sale at almost any native plant nursery. It’s an excellent addition to any native wildlife garden.

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Verizon Volunteers!

This past Saturday we had a group of nine volunteers from Verizon who joined us in the gardens for some heavy work. They removed Indian Hawthorn shrubs and scads of Mexican Petunia. The group pulled weeds, pruned back dead wood and then loaded up all the debris. By the end of of the three hours I was truly amazed by how much work had been accomplished. These volunteers were excellent, hard working and a great team.

Thanks Verizon!

MOSI Outside on May 7th

On May 7th MOSI will be holding an event entitled MOSI Outside. A fundraiser for the BioWorks Butterfly Garden and Richard T. Bowers Historic Tree Grove, this event  feature a a plant sale, an art show and sale highlighting nature themed art and also informational classes and lectures. For children we will offer a Caterpillar Petting Zoo, crafts, story time and more. A game of chance will be held featuring beautiful pieces of art and more.

This event is free!

We’ll be posting details about classes and times coming soon! More information at the MOSI website.

Plan to attend? Let us know on the MOSI Outside Facebook event page.