Chasing Butterflies

Admiration for butterflies has long been my hobby. That is coupled with taking their photos whenever time allows. This hobby will not be complete without the other, as the fulfillment of being a butterfly hobbyist is having a lot of their photographs stored in your files. Some good shots are made into the owner's screen saver and others even have their favorite shots printed and laid in picture frames. Sometimes, a nice picture even makes a lovely greeting card for some friends. The possibilities of using butterfly pictures are endless, and fans range from children to the children once.

Other people with entrepreneurial inklings raise butterflies for sale, and even for export. These days, weddings, thanksgivings, birthdays, baptisms, anniversaries, you name it, and many affairs use butterflies as symbols of happiness. They release the butterflies at specific moment in the program to commemorate whatever theme they are celebrating. Release of butterflies can even signify many meanings, but mostly freedom, peace, tranquility, beauty, forgiveness, accomplishment, Every symbol for butterfly release denotes positive meanings, just as the flapping of the wings signify.

   

LIME BUTTERFLY, Papilio demoleus demoleus' COMMON MORMON Menelaides polytes ledebouria

My fondness for butterflies give an extra meaning for me. I chase them, photograph them in my garden, in our vicinity and in some undomesticated areas with the hope of documenting all the Species Total Count in our town. The happiness of finding one species not yet in the original list gives a certain high, a certain euphoria that might not be relatable for other people. I hope to publish the species photos in a book, but if it will not materialize, then at least others will find them in any other forms, when my curtain closes. At the least they are included in the website of Philippine Lepidoptera. I have them tabulated in matrix, alphabetically arranged with corresponding host plants for their larvae. They are all real as they are from my personal observations.

DARK BLUE TIGER, Tirumala hamata orientalis

LEMON PANSY, Junonia lemonias janome

 

\Those are just examples of pictures i recently took from the garden.  Since the pandemic i have not gone out of the house for any butterfly chasing in the vicinity. At least i have nectar plants intentionally planted to lure them in. And gardening for butterflies is another story.

PALE AWLET, Bibasis gomata lorquini

GLASSY TIGER, Parantica vitrina vitrina

Post Script: I have lots and lots of butterfly pphotos, but blogging after more than a year of not posting gave me lots of difficulties in picture layout. Oh My God i behave like the first time in 2008 when i did my first post. I hope i still regain my patience of repeatedly previewing, editing again and again. My finished post here is not to the best of my liking, but ....here it is, a new beginning!

In Focus: Hoya diversifolia on Trees

Hoya diversifolia being endemic to the Philippines, love the climate of the country. That is a given and just like any other plant when given the conditions it needs will flourish and give the collector endless joys and satisfaction. I have read many times in Facebook posts some collectors and hobbyists'  experiences about Hoya diversifolia. My curiosity was triggered when someone said that her plant has been with her for 25 years, but has not rewarded her with flowers. I was not only curious, i was intrigued. And i almost pity the collector for tending the plant for that long without any results, and daily she was just waiting. Being impatient, i guess that will not happen with me! I've said many times that i am patient only inside the doctor's clinic, where probably the word patient originated. I never mind that virtue, not one of my stronger virtues anyway.

Another fact about my Hoya diversifolia that makes it more interesting at least for me, is that it was my first hoya given by no other than the former hoya authority in the country, Dr. Monina Siar. She was a friend in the university, became a hoya collector and responsible for naming most of the hoyas endemic here. She even had a hoya named after her, Hoya siariae, but she died of cancer a few years ago in her 40s. So you will understand my predicament with this hoya species, and my need for it to flower earlier than what others experienced.

I grow the small plant given to me in a pot, let it hanging as most hobbyists do. I took a cutting and planted in the 2nd pot. After one year I was already jittery, as it is growing well with very long internodes, but no trace of peduncles at all. I told you i am impatient. I let the 2nd plant climb the lanzones tree in front of the house, as it is not giving us good fruits anyway, because of bark borers. It looked so happy climbing vigorously untill some stems reached the top and sunny side of the tree. I realized it wanted direct sunlight from sunrise to sunset. So i just let it be, doing what it wants. I never give it any fertilizers nor watering during the dry months. Leaves just yellowed and a bit shrunken but recover fast when the rainy months came. After two years on the tree it gave a lot of flowers, this year is its 4th year on the tree. The pictures will tell you a lot of information, no need for me to talk anymore.

This tree is taller than the roof of the 2nd floor. The bottom part of the picture is at level of the 1st floor roof. Beside it is the hoya house where all my hoyas are kept as hanging plants. 

Thank you so much for your patronage of my In Focus on hoyas. 

Our World Tuesday

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

Blooms in September 2019

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

Our archipelagic tropical country is at the middle of our rainy season. Our plants are more lush and our gardens are usually full, if not of ornamental plants, then probably with weeds. Maybe that is talking from experience, because even if i am trying to have a decent garden i cannot cope with the growth of weeds. So be that as it may, i just change my perspective and hope that weeds protect the soil from erosion, provide food for whatever biological entity need it for existence. So, another perspective is that i allow more food available to support the food chain. That is to assuage my feeling of inadequacy in maintaining a neat garden.

Another fact that these period of climate change is giving us is the limited amount of rain even while in the rainy season. So we only get them together with typhoons! It might be an advantage that we get more than the letters of the English alphabet every year for the typhoons, meaning rains will be available for our vegetation.

Available only during the wet season - Chrysothemis pulchella

Pentas lanceolata (red)

Ixora javanica becomes a tall bush. It is planted under some trees also as nectar plants for the butterflies. It stays as a perennial, but flowers most profusely during the rainy season. 

the profusely flowering Ixora javanica does not receive any cultural management

Garlic vine, Pachyptera aliacea, is planted only to maximize the value of the jackfruit tree which is not fruiting anymore due to probably some disease. It now serves as a live trellis to the garlic vine

red Cosmos bipinnatus, is planted specifically as butterfly nectar plants

Cosmos is a photoperiodic plant where internodes elongate during the long days.

All year round semi-terete Vanda, also self supporting 

Asystasia intrusa, as the name implies is invasive. We just try to cut or pull the plant with the roots to lessen its growth, but it is beautiful.

its nector is loved by this male butterfly, Wanderer, Parantica boebera boebera

one clump of Asystasia intrusa that was constantly pruned

a beautiful foliage of Song of India, Dracaena reflexa

an old caladium variety providing life to dull corners, also favorite of hawkmoths

Hoya carnnosa (red)

Hoyas receive more special attention in my garden, it has a hoya house and watered daily when it does not rain, sometime even twice a day when needed.

Hoya 'Viola', a well sought after hoya by the butterflies. Despite many species blooming simultaneously, the butterflies converge here. ...and i have a lot more hoya for more future posts. 

GBBD