Buttterfly Garden - The flower that never opens...

If you're looking for a short (1-2ft.) pretty purple fall bloomer that is able to thrive in moist soil and full or partial sun, try the Bottle Gentian.  The unique flower petals are fused creating a bottle-shaped tube.  The only pollinators that are able to muscle their way into the strange flower bottles are bumble bees.  It's pretty fun to watch.  I'm assuming that the advantage to the Gentian may be that this obstacle course ensures a nice heavy dusting of pollen.(?)

Butterfly Garden - The New Guy...

Don't believe the lie about the filing cabinets... And I prefer to call it extreme curiosity, but thanks for the shout-out, Kett, if that's what that was. ;)  Anyway, I've got a crazy caterpillar story:  I was out in our new Maine East vegetable garden with Mr. PappaG and Mr.Skelton Friday looking for some healthy treats to bring home for the weekend.  Skelton informed us that the Morning Glories were choking the broccoli, so when I pulled the heap of offenders out this nice, plump guy/gal (see pic below) was revealed, munching on fennel.  Nice colors, huh?  Black Swallowtail Butterfly - they're pretty abundant in North America.  They eat plants in the carrot family (dill, fennel parsley, Queen Anne's Lace, etc.)

Determined to protect him from harm and not to miss the prepupal ritual and transformation, I placed him in the tank with the Monarch chrysalis and brought him home for the weekend.  On the ride home I got a little anxious as I saw him approach the Monarch cocoon.  The tank can't be opened now due to the precarious position of the Monarch.  After yelling and stressing (even some tapping on the tank at stoplights) awaiting the impending sabotage or who knows what, then brainstorming about who to pull over and call for advice, I realized it was really just caterpillar curiosity.  (?)  Calm down...  He moved on.

I got him home and watched as he spun a silken attachment pad on the side of the tank then kept reinforcing a "girdle" strand that would hold his upper body as he leaned back.

So exciting to watch, but then I MISSED the best part!  Sitting on the couch only six feet away but immersed online, I missed the whole transformation.  To the left you see the skin he shed and the fresh chrysalis still suspended by the girdle.  What a drag - below is what I suppose it must have looked like (mute the video - the fake sloppy shedding sounds are gross):



This species doesn't migrate like the Monarch.  They spend all Winter in their cocoon, believe it or don't.  The last generation of the year emerges in August or September, so this one could become a butterfly in a week or stay put for the next seven months.  I guess we'll wait and see!  You can actually put them in the refrigerator with a damp cloth until April.  Wish I would've known and I'd have put him in a container 1/50th the size.   Ah, well - we'll find a nice safe spot for him outside. 

And the Monarch's light green chrysalis with shiny gold rim is now thinning enough to see the black wings inside.  I'm guessing we'll be setting him free tomorrow afternoon.  Would that there were an inexpensive remote-sensing mini-camera to strap to his back...  !

~Ms. Childress

Butterfly Garden - Calm Down and Read This

It’s understandable that when the word “butterfly” is heard, one gets excited. What’s not to love about any of the members of order Lepidoptera (I seriously knew that)? Go ahead and add the word “garden” on top of “butterfly” and you’ve got a recipe for some real excitement.

*True story, when I first met Ms. Childress, I mentioned butterfly gardens to her and she started running around the office, screaming and knocking over filing cabinets.

I’ve met people who were passionate before, but until I met her and found out about her passion for butterflies and gardens (see anecdote above*), I had no idea what passion was. Over the summer, she was quite often found amidst her plants (or her “babies”). Once I even saw her arguing with one. She’sfirm, but fair.

Some of her more precious babies include the Rattlesnake Master (see below), a member of the carrot family (!) that is common in most Illinois counties, sans those in Southwest Illinois. Fun fact: Pioneers originally thought that the root could be used as an effect antidote to the bite of a rattlesnake, (hence,the name) but they were way off. Perhaps that’s why so many pioneers died; that, and dysentery.

We also actually have an endangered species in our garden, the Small Sundrops, which is normally foundout on the East coast and only blooms during the day, so that’s alright. This one was a recent adoption from Oakton Ken, still a tiny baby and hasn't bloomed yet, so look it up yourself if you want to see it in all it's glory.

On top of that, we’ve got the Eastern Prickly Pear cactus. That’s right, a cactus in the Midwest. Talk about it. We’ll let that sink in.

Once you check your heart rate, go ahead and read on at your own risk.

You may have just missed the yellow blooming of one of the tallest plants in our haven(right by the Southwest corner of the building), and that would be the Compass Plant, an essential component to any prairie that’s worth admiring. Pioneers believed that it’s leaves always faced in the North/South direction, and while that may be true more often than not, it’s not always reliable. We certainly wouldn’t call those pioneers a “credible source” with their “fringe” and “manifest destiny” and “cholera” and “having to caulk the wagon and float across the river.”

**Authors note: I don’t remember a lot from “history,” but I did play a lot of Oregon Trail as a child.

***Authors note again: I destroyed that game.









~ Mr. Kett

Butterfly Garden - What's in bloom? August

You may have noticed Button Blazing Star (Liatris aspera) greeting you if you enter through the science wing. One of my all-time favorites and what a beauty! This was one of 40 or so natives donated to us last month by Oakton Community College's Ken Schaefer who manages their numerous native ecosystems and landscapes on campus. It matures to about 3' tall, prefers full sun but can tolerate some shade and blooms for a short 3 weeks, so catch a glimpse while you can!

Butterflies, hummingbirds, and bees love this flower. Monarchs, Painted Ladies, and Black Swallowtails frequently sip from it. It's also great in flower arrangements, fresh or dry as the flowers keep their purple color :)

You may have also noticed its close relative, Prairie Blazing Star, which has similar bright purple flowers that fill out over a long central stem but grows to 5' tall and usually require staking until the prairie plot fills to prop it up and probably limit its height. The clusters of twisting stems create unique towering flower sculptures in our garden.

~Ms. Childress

Butterfly Garden - First Monarch Caterpillar of 2010!

He was there on Tuesday but then I lost him... but then he was found!! Twenty feet away on another species of milkweed plant. I've seen the Monarch Butterflies hanging around but their 26-34 day egg/caterpillar/pupal stages have eluded me for the last few years. This guy's probably ten days old, another four or so until he pupates - in the safety of class 202's former lizard cage. He's super sweet. :) After a 9-14 day pupation he'll be off to Texas, maybe Mexico? Quite a dumbfounding mystery how three to four generations share a 2,000 mile migration...

Below are pictures from the garden's first Monarch capture and release in 2008. One of my Environmental Science students noticed the chrysalis on the side of the building when we got back from a field trip. Realizing that it might not survive another few weeks at kicking height I brought it home for a safe transformation!


~Ms. Childress

The Endless Benefits of a Native Butterfly Prairie Garden...

Alas, some method to and reasoning behind the madness... The Maine East Butterfly Garden has found its stride! With over 75 different native Illinois plant species we have quite a welcome charging station for butterflies and other natives. We even have a few trees (Oak and Black Walnut) growing in there, thanks to the squirrels, as well as one state-listed endangered species. :O

Why are native prairie gardens so fabulous?

1. Educational value! Dissecting flowers and identifying the male and female parts is pretty fun. There are also lots of evolutionary adaptations to observe out there, symbiotic relationships between pollinators and host plant to analyze, soil comparisons to be made, historical uses to research, and cycles from seedling to flower to fruit to blog about. It's also a great place to learn about how wildlife biologists make observations and hypotheses about nature before embarking on a field study or experiment.

2. They provide a diverse range of habitat and food for our native critters, especially butterflies, some of whom migrate 2,000 miles to get down to their wintering grounds in the southern states or Mexico.

3. These plants are adapted to the winter and come back each year in the Spring, sometimes with their babies nearby!

4. Prairie plants have really deep roots that can reach up to 15 feet into the ground. This helps create a porous and deep, fertile soil that absorbs way more water. This means you don't really have to water the plants! It also means that there is less runoff of water into rivers, creeks, and even homes with big storms. Xeriscaping - gardening or landscaping techniques that reduce the need for watering. Save money, flood less!

5. Huge variation in their heights, flower color, leaf sizes/shapes, & bloom time. Keeps things pretty and unique from spring to fall.

6. Native plants are adapted to resist the local pests & diseases that can typically destroy non-native ornamental plants.

7. Once established, very little weeding necessary! And there is never really a need for use of fertilizers or pesticides, as there typically is with ornamental gardens.

8. Lots of fun facts regarding these plants' medicinal and general uses by Native Americans.

9. Inspiration - painters, photographers, creative writers, poets, & musicians welcome. Maybe we should get some grant money for some benches!

10. I can't end on 9... hmm... I know! Gets me off my computer and back to my roots. Calming & therapeutic to take pictures, pull weeds, observe the species interactions, and take note of the variety of cycles with the plants and their pollinators.
Know of more? Feel free to comment!

~ Ms. Childress