Friday, August 29, 2025

Monarch Butterflys

Monarch On Echinacea
Danaus plexippus on Echinacea purpurea.
The entire plant can be used for its immune boosting properties. The purple ray flowers attach to a round, high and spiky cone, hence the common name, purple coneflower. Technically speaking, this thick and spiky cone is actually hundreds of flowers, all tightly packed together. Echinacea's name is rooted in the Greek word “echinos,” meaning "hedgehog," because of its spiny seed head.
 
Monarch Butterfly Caterpillar
On Milkweed.
Which end is which on this Monarch Caterpillar On Milkweed. Monarchs can’t survive without milkweed. They need it to lay their eggs on and their caterpillars only eat milkweed plants. The monarch butterfly population is in danger because milkweed plants are disappearing, due to loss of habitat stemming from land development and the widespread spraying of weed killer on the fields where they live. We can help monarchs by growing milkweed in our yards, fields, and gardens.
Monarch Butterfly On Echinacea 11
Monarch Butterfly On Echinacea 17
Monarch Butterfly On Purple Loosetrife
Monarch Butterfly On Purple Loosetrife
Monarch Butterfly On Purple Loosetrife
Monarch Butterfly - Danaus plexippus on purple asters.
They say that the name Butterfly is of unknown origin, but I believe that they were originally called Flutterbys, as I like to call them, and that someone (perhaps a child), probably mispronounced it, and it stuck. They are fascinating creatures who take to the air on gossamer wings. They've come to symbolize metamorphosis. These remarkable pollinators display a diversity of colors and patterns.
Monarchs can’t survive without milkweed. They need it to lay their eggs on and their caterpillars only eat milkweed plants. The monarch butterfly population is in danger because milkweed plants are disappearing, due to loss of habitat stemming from land development and the widespread spraying of weed killer on the fields where they live. We can help monarchs by growing milkweed in our yards, fields, and gardens.
New England Aster (Aster novae-angliae). Another plant to ease wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tension and congestion.
Monarch Butterfly on purple asters.
Monarch Butterfly On Butterfly Weed
Danaus plexippus on Asclepias tuberosa, a species of milkweed native to eastern North America.
                         

(Danaus plexippus) on purple cone flower.

Echinacea purpurea. Echinacea's name is rooted in the Greek word “echinos,” meaning "hedgehog," because of its spiny seed head.
Monarch Butterfly On Echinacea 23
Monarch Butterfly On Echinacea, From A Different Angle
This photo was Awarded Capture My Vermont, Photo of the Day, for August 17, 2018.
Monarch Butterfly On Goldenrod
Monarch Butterfly On Milkweed 
This photo was Awarded Capture My Vermont, Photo of the Day, for July 20, 2018.
Monarchs cannot survive without milkweed. They need it to lay their eggs on and their caterpillars only eat milkweed plants, which is why I always let some milkweed grow in my garden. The monarch butterfly population is in danger because milkweed plants are rapidly disappearing, due to loss of habitat stemming from land development and the widespread spraying of weed killer on the fields where they live. We can help monarchs by growing milkweed in our yards, fields, and gardens.
Monarch Butterfly On Pine
Monarch Butterfly On Bee Balm
                              
Monarch Butterfly On Young Crabapples
Monarch Butterfly In Flight

Monarch butterfly alert: There are concerns about the alarming decline of the western monarch population, which has plummeted by 95%, from more than 10 million in the 1980s to less than 30,000 in 2018. Insects can bounce back quickly when conditions improve, but unfortunately the numbers were not any better in 2019. A recent census of the wintering sites along the California coast revealed mostly empty trees once festooned with monarchs. The decline is due to habitat loss, pesticide use, and drought triggered by climate change. None of us can turn around those big trends individually, but what each of us can do is make our backyards and public spaces more attractive to monarchs by planting the right milkweed plants. Plant, and they will come! Monarchs can’t survive without milkweed. They need it to lay their eggs on and their caterpillars only eat milkweed plants. The monarch butterfly population is in danger because milkweed plants are disappearing, due to loss of habitat stemming from land development and the widespread spraying of weed killer on the fields where they live. We can help monarchs by growing milkweed in our yards, fields, and gardens.
Monarch butterfly on Blue Billygoat weed
(aka floss flower, bluemink, blueweed, pussy foot, Mexican paintbrush) The easiest way to tell a male monarch butterfly from a female monarch is by looking for two dark spots on the hindwings—the female butterflies don’t have these spots. A female monarch in the wild can lay up to 500 eggs on milkweed plants throughout her lifetime. The adult monarchs you see fluttering through your backyard when the weather’s warm typically live only about 4 or 5 weeks — just long enough to mate and produce the next group. It takes four generations of monarchs to complete their annual migration journey before ending up in your garden again. However, the fourth “super generation” that overwinters in Mexico can live for as long as eight months. Monarch butterflies can flap their wings up to 12 times a second when flying at their fastest. Monarch butterflies fly a long distance during fall migration, farther than any other tropical butterfly—up to 3,000 miles. 

Monarch Butterfly On Purple Vervain

The purpletop vervain or Verbena bonariensis is a perennial originating from South America, but in our latitudes it is not sufficiently hardy and therefore rather short-lived. Therefore it is often used as a summer flower – even though it can grow in the garden for years by self-sowing. Its flowers attract over 40 different species of butterflies!

My photographs are available for purchase
Thanks for your visits, favs and comments. As always, appreciated very much!
© all rights reserved by Elise T. Marks. Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit written permission.

My blog is meant to inform and I strive to be totally accurate. It is solely up to the reader to ensure proper plant identification. Some wild plants and mushrooms are poisonous or can have serious adverse health effects.

Monday, August 25, 2025

Eastern Black Swallowtail Butterfly

Eastern Black Swallowtail Butterfly On Echinacea
This is a male. Isn't he pretty? 
 It has been known by a variety of other names including black swallowtail, American swallowtail, parsnip swallowtail, parsley swallowtail, & Papilio polyxenes asterius. Black swallowtail caterpillars utilize a variety of herbs in the carrot family (Apiaceae) as host plants.

Black Swallowtail Butterfly On Zinnias. (Papilio polyxenes) Also known as American swallowtail or parsnip swallowtail. This is a male. Its caterpillar is called the parsley worm because the caterpillar
feeds on parsley. They also host on dill, fennel, Queen Anne’s lace, and common rue.
Black Swallowtail Butterfly On Marigolds
Female, Papilio polyxenes. Or it might be a Spicebush Swallowtail butterfly, Papilio troilus. I've never seen one with such thin translucent wings before. In many cultures, it is believed the black butterfly is a symbol of transition, renewal or rebirth.
Eastern Black Swallowtail Butterfly On Lilacs
This photo  has been awarded the Photo of the Day award on Capture My Vermont, on May 28th, 2015.
 Black Swallowtail Butterfly Caterpillar On Parsley







Black Swallowtail Butterfly on Purple Vervain

The purpletop vervain or Verbena bonariensis is a perennial originating from South America, but in our latitudes it is not sufficiently hardy and therefore rather short-lived. Therefore it is often used as a summer flower – even though it can grow in the garden for years by self-sowing. Its flowers attract over 40 different species of butterflies!


Thanks for your visits, favs and comments. As always, appreciated very much!
© all rights reserved by Elise T. Marks. Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit written permission.

My blog is meant to inform and I strive to be totally accurate. It is solely up to the reader to ensure proper plant identification. Some wild plants and mushrooms are poisonous or can have serious adverse health effects.

Saturday, August 23, 2025

Summer Wildflowers

Wild & Blue

Asiatic Dayflower

Blue-eyed-grass Flower

Sisyrnichium bermudiana L.

& Buttercup

In the language of flowers, the Buttercup traditionally carries the symbolic meaning of growth, youthfulness, good health, and attraction. 

Northern Bush Honeysuckle

Wood Asters
Birds Foot Trefoil

Bittersweet Nightshade
New England Asters

Canada Anemone
Blue Vervain
Bunchberries
Button Bush
Bladder Campion
Celandine
Wild Columbine
Common Hemp Nettle
Creeping Bellflower
Daisy
Dames Rocket
Deptford Pinks
Gentian
Black Cohosh
Indian Pipe
or
Ghost Pipe
False Hellebore
False Solomon's seal
Fleabane Daisy
Fringed Polygala
Golden Rod
Herb Robert
Indian Hemp Dogbane
Blue Flag Iris
Jewelweed
Joe Pye Weed
Knapweed
Lady Slipper
 (C. acaule)
Lupine
Mallow
Milkweed
Marsh Hedge Nettle
Common Wood Sorrel
Purple Loostrife
Purple Flowering Raspberry
Pasque Flower
Queen Anne's Lace
Wild Rose
Spreading Dogbane
Maximilian Sunflower
Vetch
Wildflowers
Wildflower Fields
One of my favorite things in late summer is the pink & yellow of the Joe Pye Weed & the Goldenrod, blooming in the fields.


My photographs are available for purchase
Thanks for your visits, favs and comments. As always, appreciated very much!
© all rights reserved by Elise T. Marks. 
Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit written permission.