October 2019 Blooms

My last month's promise of posting more has not been fulfilled. I am so sorry for that. My consciousness just get more busy at the middle of the month for the Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.  The rest of the months i just do my usual garden chores, photo editing for FB and of course chatting with friends. Chatting with garden friends by creating articles have been shelved for new means of social media. But i am by habit still here for the monthly GBBD.

We are so thankful this year that no very strong typhoons are passing by our country's Area of Responsibility. Some were affected by the strong rains that come with typhoons at the Pacific, but at least they did not come directly to us, just like the previous years. So our plants and domestic crops are spared, and we have our household vegetable gardens giving us harvests. We cannot even finish the fruits of our few plants like okra, ampalaya, malunggay and sweet potato tops. My hoya plants are also not suffering setbacks due to strong winds from the strong typhoons.

Our area is not flat, so this area we put some blocks to contain the soil at the other side. I purposely did not put cement finish to that short wall because the green moss during the rainy season is a pleasant scene to see. That length is normally fully green this time of the year. I only planted a few Portulaca oleraceae for contrast.

Flowers of the orange Portulaca change hues from opening to senescense, which is only a full day.

 the reproductive parts of the cosmos flower

My red cosmos is still from a friend from the southern part of the country. I guess this color is common abroad in colder countries but not here. It could have been brought by friends from abroad, and i asked some seeds from her garden. The usual colors here in the country are the yellows and orange. But this red is truly a lovely addition to any garden, besides it is also loved by butterflies. 

the inflorescence is still lovely at the end of its blooming period

back shot of a cosmos flower

 the developing seeds are in those spindles

 We have a big plant of this Queen of the Night, Epiphyllum oxipetalum. The first big batch of flowers opened at the same time when i was not at home in August. I was so disappointed i did not see them opening simultaneously in one night. I can also just imagine the fragrance permeating the atmosphere that night, as they normally start producing scent at about 7 pm until the flowers close after midnight.  This month, as if to assuage my curiosity, a lone flower emerged. I waited till the flower fully opened just to take photos, and my waiting was rewarded.

 Queen of the Night fully open

 close-up of the reproductive parts that give its sweet scent

 Another plant that is plenty under some trees near the edge of our house is this Crossandra infundibuliformis. It also has a yellow form. They do not fully die during the dry season, because they have enlarged storage roots that keep them alive, and will emerge alive again come rainy months. That ensures its continuity nearing invasiveness. They are difficult to kill because of the dense storage roots.

 Another very prominent foliage plant in dry climates is this Sanchezia speciosa. They have tubular small flowers, but i prefer the beauty of their leaves. A dead spot in a garden can be enlivened by this plant. In mine, i planted it at the bottom of a jackfruit tree to cover the sickly trunk attacked by bark borers. That tree i used as a live trellis for the garlic vine. With this foliage the area looks lively and healthy despite the dying tree.

One of the most conspicuous flowering plant in October is this Hoya diversifolia, which i allowed to climb an almost dying lanzones tree. It has been there for 4 years and the most prolific flowering is now. I need to climb the roof of the first floor to get the pictures but i managed, i just go out of the window at the 2nd floor.  Some nodes are even bearing 2 or 3 umbels, and that is amazing for a hoya. I guess i am the only one in the country who has this kind of growth for this species. A full post will be done next time only for this hoya on the lanzones tree. 

GBBD

Nature Notes

Thru My Lens

Almost Macro Shots

The title is not confident, i know that, but i used a macro function in taking these photos. Suffice it to say that the subject of these photos are really small, and my macro lens is just 50mm. That is the reason for using "almost". I wish i have 100mm macro lens! That time i will shun from using almost. I am laughing, with the colloquial term now as "lol".

NOID blue weed flower, nectar plant for the Tiny Grass Blues. 

I love those very tiny protrusions on the sepals of the flowers.

 this is how the flower stalk looks like, this shot is even  longer than reality

 this is one of the fallen flowers from a bunch of molave umbel. It is maybe only half a centimeter

 the width of that expanse is about one inch, also a nectar plant

the diameter of that crown is about 1 cm, also a weed

this baby praying mantis is less than an inch long, it posed for me nicely

 a very small bag moth is inside, length is 1 cm

this Tiny Grass Blue which nectar on all the above weed flowers except the molave tree, has only half a centimeter wing span

Our World Tuesday
Nature Notes
Through My Lens

Wildflowers for Wednesday and for Butterflies

I have not been posting for Wildflower Wednesday, as i normally forget the 4th Wednesday of the month. But i remember it when it is not time to post. Now i suddenly realize it and thanks circumstances that tomorrow is the 4th Wednesday. I am in time for the link of Gail's Clay and Limestone. Now the problem is to search for my wildflowers still scaterred in my so many files.

Here are some of them as remnants of our rainy season growths. I warn you they are mostly taken because of butterflies!

Above and Below is Plumbago zeylanica, an endemic white plumbago species in the country. I found this in the wild and amazed that a butterfly is ovipositing on its young flower buds. I have lots of the red plumbago, but i haven't observed any butterflies nectaring on them or any larva eating them.

Zebra Blue or Plumbago Blue, Leptotes plinius leopardus, a lycaenid

 the clump of Plumbago zeylanica

a hover fly and a wasp moth nectaring on the Mikania micrantha

 Mikania micrantha, (Mile-a-minute weed as called in Singapore), is an introduced species, a vine, and as expected from alien species they are very invasive. It can easily kill a native plant that it can totally cover during the rainy season. At least it has some function as nectar plants for the butterflies and other insects.

Dwarf Crow and Grey Glassy Tiger on porter weed, Stachetarpheta jamaicensis

 Glassy Tiger, Parantica vitrina vitrina and Snow Flat, Tagiades japetus titus

 a large clump of porter weed, Stachetarpheta jamaicensis on a fallowed grassy area

a blue weed

this Tiny Grass Blue, Zizina hylax pygmaea, is the tiniest butterfly in my area that is less than a centimeter both in length and in width. It is so frantic and sometimes difficult to photograph as it alights again after minutes. But when it is still early they can be easily posing with the camera and later when they feed and oviposit on the very short grasses. 

 this is the NOID blue flowers with also very short stems

Aerva lanata (Amaranthaceae), only a few insects alight on them, yet i find them pretty too. We have lots of this in our property and on adjacent uncultivated lands. I just realized upon learning its name that it has lots of medicinal properties and antioxidant components. There are even dried plants being sold formally in the internet and on ebay. 

Aerva lanata growing abundantly in our property

Another low weed that flowers profusely and loved by tigers and skippers. This Grey Glassy Tiger, Ideopsis juventa manillana, kept on coming back and forth from this lump of flowers.

 This is the whole stand of the weed as it starts to produce flowers, just about 2 ft tall. The dry season has started and this seems to be just starting to reproduce. At least the butterflies have alternatives from the flowers that already finished maturity for the rainy season.

Wildflower Wednesday

Camera Critters

Saturday Critters

Through My Lens

Some Nature Finds

I have not gone home last weekend, so i can't seem to find photos to post for this Monday. But wait i have to look in my latest files. I realized i still got lots of shots about lots and lots of biodiversity in my place. Whatever comes in front of my eyes, i document, and they are sometimes unnoticed because i just usually post the hoya and butterflies. I i just have to look, i have a lot of them.

 maturing seed pods of a weed

 they are easily borne by the wind and gets very invasive, but as flowers some butterflies love them

Flower buds of milkweeds, Asclepias curassavica, an introduced species from tropical Americas However, it is also introduced to my lowland garden, as i got it from our colder highlands. I was just trying it out in my garden for our local monarchs. 

 Open flowers of milkweed, they are like dancing ladies with overflowing gowns, but our butterflies has not found them yet. 

this is the milkweed pod about to dehisce, being in the hoya family they have the same characteristics

young shoots and leaves of akapulko, Cassia alata, a favored host of Mottled Emigrant butterfly

Look at those yet very small larvae of the Mottled Emigrant, Catopsilia pyranthe pyranthe. The ants seem to be tending them, and they might perhaps shoe away the predators.

.

Even at the pre-pupation stage the ants are still there. I wonder what symbiotic relationship they have with those ants. 

 jumping spider upside down

 A dark blue tiger butterfly, Tirumala hamata orestilla, beautified by shadows. 

Nature Notes
Through My Lens
Our World Tuesday
Outdoor Wednesday

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day September

It is already September, the flowers have been blooming for quite sometime. In a little while they will produce pods, mature, dehisce and die. These are the annuals providing us much colors during the dry season. Of course you know that our dry season is still more of dry, it only rains when there are typhoons looming in the horizon, and the rains come when they come into the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR).

Yesterday i am supposed to visit the Orchid Show, but even at very early morning the sky looks so hot, and that was true till the sun sets. I decided not to view the garden show, i might go there tomorrow. The disadvantage is that the flowers in the landscape garden competitions would have already been suffering wilting, dying and so on after days of so much sun and heat. This morning i woke up with pitter-patter outside! It was raining, and it is because there is a typhoon almost near PAR. Oh it is already noontime and the sun hasn't showed up yet, it might be more wet tomorrow when it is already here. But never mind, i prefer the rains more than the sun and heat.

So here are some of our blooms in my yard in the province.

 The biggest flowering single plant at the side of our house is a blue Duranta erecta. It is already a tall bush maybe 12ft high with lots of blooms very well loved by insects mostly butterflies.

Orange emigrant, Catopsilia sp.

It is always teeming with butterflies during the rainy season. So my FB friends get lots of butterfly photos. How can you resist the view when lots of butterflies are fluttering and nectaring on a single plant!

Common Lime (Papilio demoleus demoleus) and Great Eggfly (Hypolimnas bolina philippensis)

 Scarlet Mormon, Papilio deiphobus ledebouria

It is the biggest among the butterflies visiting the duranta. It truly is an eye catcher, but photographing it is difficult because the forewings flutter non-stop, and it doesn't stop long on a flower like the others. It only sips in one flower in a bunch then transfer to another bunch with a big leap. 

 the only hippeastrum that blooms several times per year, Hippeastrum reticulatum var Striatifolium (not sure of the ID) 

 Ixora javanica, favorite of the Common Mormon

Ixora chinensis

Turnera subulata

Turnera subulata flowers only in the morning, close at noon

 ...it is favored by bees, stingless bees and a few small butterflies

 Wedelia trilobata a volunteer groundcover at the side street opposite the house

 ...it is visited mostly by small butterflies like this Plains Cupid, together with the Grass Blues

 Impatiens balsamina

These volunteer Impatiens balsamina occupies most of the ground if we did not uproot most of them. Formerly, there also are pink and whites, but only the purple are dominant now, with a few whites. 

 Not many butterflies visit them, but this skipper seem to be glad with it. There are also a few of them which frequent this.

 

Impatiens balsamina at the left and Stachetarpheta jamaicensis at right.

Tigers and crows love these porter weed

Heliconia, this grows so fast and together with the crab claw we uprooted them together with their rhizomes. We dumped them, as they get invasive, but there still are a few plants somewhere not in the main clump.

I only have 2 Episcias, the red and yellow. I am trying to cross-pollinate them, but i forgot to put the labels, so next time i will.

 the yellow is more palatable for some munching larvae

 Weeds at the side of the road outside our fence, also visited by butterflies. Even if you are a weed, i will not uproot you if butterflies like to visit you, either as host plant or nectar plant. 

 

Vitex negundo

metallic blue insect

Vitex negundo is a big bush loved also by some butterflies in the wild. It is actually a medicinal plant whose leaves are made into cough remedies. There already are capsules of this in the market as Plemex and Ascof, already registered.

a blue butterfly on my hoya

Moths or a butterflies visiting my hoya blooms will not escape my camera. Be it day or night i am prepared to document you. 

So i hope you enjoyed visiting my garden blooms, just like those butterflies! Thank you so much my Blogger Friends. 

Floral Friday Fotos

GBBD
Through My Lens