- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The shadow knows, but what does it know?
It knows to follow.
It follows the Gulf Fritillary--a brightly colored orange and black butterfly with silver-spangled wings--up a fence in Vacaville, Calif., and vanishes.
That's what butterflies and shadows do--they vanish.
If you're growing passionflower vine (Passiflora), you've probably photographed the Agraulis vanillae egg, the caterpillar, the chrysalis and the adult.
But its shadow?
Have you photographed its shadow, that dark silhouette intercepting rays of light?
The shadow knows, but what does it know?
It knows to follow.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The Gulf Frit, or "passion butterfly" (Agraulis vanillae), lays her tiny, yellow eggs, singly, on her host plant, the passionflower vine (Passiflora).
The egg? It's about the size of a pin head. Look closely and you'll see it's ridged like the raised lines of sand or a miniature ear of corn.
Often a Gulf Frit will deposit her egg on a tendril, which looks like a cork screw gone ballistic. Sometimes she'll lay her egg on a leaf, a bud, a stem or a nearby wall, gate or fence. Mama, how can we find our way?
We've grown Passiflora in our garden in Vacaville for decades. Some seasons the 'cats will skeletonize the plant, eating everything--from the leaves and blossoms right down to the stems.
Some gardeners refuse to plant the passionflower vine because a stripped plant makes them look like "a bad gardener." They have been known to pluck off the hungry 'cats to "save" the plant.
We let nature take its course. Butterflies mate, eggs hatch, caterpillars crawl, chrysalises form, and the cycle starts all over again. An egg is the promise of a new generation.
Last year the predators, including California scrub jays, praying mantises, spiders, yellowjackets and European paper wasps, grabbed their share of the 'cats.
This season, no. The scrub jays have, for the most part, vanished. Hey, look at that hawk circling our yard! The praying mantises are gone. And we haven't seen a yellowjacket, European paper wasp or spider for weeks.
It's a good year for the Gulf Frits! And a bad year for the passionflower vine... It is about to be skeletonized.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
It's always a good idea to carry your cell phone or shoulder a camera while you're taking a stroll through a garden.
You never know what you will see.
It was early morning on Tuesday, June 7, when we spotted a female Valley carpenter bee, Xylocopa sonorina, asleep on a passionflower vine, Passiflora. That's the host plant for the Gulf Fritillary, Agraulis vanillae, but carpenter bees are always hanging around for pollination. Tiny grains of golden pollen cling to this bee look like gold dust.
The females are solid black, while the males are a golden blond with green eyes. Sexual dimorphism. These bees are found in the Central Valley and southern California, Arizona, New Mexico and southward through Mexico, according to the late native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp, UC Davis emeritus professor of entomology. He described them as "the largest of the carpenter bees in California."
Wikipedia indicates Valley carpenter bees are found from western Texas to northern California, and the eastern Pacific islands. Frederick Smith, assistant in the Zoological Department of the British Museum and member of the council of the Entomological Society of London, first described X. sonorina in 1874 from specimens collected in Hawaii, according to Wikipedia. "Until 1956, it was thought that X. sonorina came from the Sunda Islands, but in a paper published that year,M. A. Lieftinck showed that Smith's interpretation of the original specimen labels was in error: Smith had mistakenly read the label of X. sonorina as meaning the Sunda Islands instead of the Sandwich Islands."
"In 1899, R. C. L. Perkins described the same species as Xylocopa aeneipennis, and in 1922, P. H. Timberlake claimed that the Hawaiian Xylocopa was the same as the mainland X. varipuncta, that had been named in 1879, and Roy Snelling predicted in 2003 that X. varipuncta would eventually be reclassified as a synonym of X. sonorina," Wikipedia relates. "This was confirmed in 2020 using DNA analysis, and as the name sonorina has seniority, this is the valid species name."
Up until 2020, we'd always called them X. varipuncta.
This week we called one "sleepy head."
Ms. Valley Carpenter Bee finally stirred and soon after, took flight.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
One point about insect wedding photography is that you don't need an invitation to attend. You just have to keep your distance and not disturb the bridal couple. No sudden movements. No stressful impatience. And no camera flash, please.
It helps, though, if you grow the host plant so a bride and a groom will show up. In this case, we grew passionflower vine (Passiflora), the host plant of the Gulf Fritillaries (Agraulis vanillae).
One morning we saw a butterfly eclose from her chrysalis. Wedding Day! Within minutes, a male suitor arrived.
They became a couple.
Then unexpected guests arrived...a hungry caterpillar munching on the leaves and a second prospective suitor (PS) (rejected) and a third PS (rejected) and a fourth PS (rejected).
PS, leave them alone!
When the "ceremony" ended, the couple simply left. One sipped nectar from the nearby Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola. The other flew over the fence.
Soon we'll have more eggs, more caterpillars, more chrysalids, and more adults.
Life is like that when you're growing Passiflora and hoping for a Wedding Day.
By Cindy Watter, UC Master Gardener of Napa County
Over the years, several people have asked me how I grew the beautiful blue and white passionflower that cascades over a trellis (and also invades my flower beds). The answer is: I didn't. My former neighbor Kristine is responsible.
One day Kristine dragged home three straggling, almost dead, unpromising looking flora she claimed were passionflowers. "Ninety-nine cents each at Thrifty!" she exulted. I thought, "Three dollars wasted."
Once again, I was wrong. Kristine planted her prizes in a deep raised bed full of rotted horse manure and compost that someone gave her and started watering them with Miracle-Gro. Next thing I knew, they had tumbled over the trellis and started to compete with my honeysuckle.
Today Kristine lives elsewhere but the vine is still here and still vigorous, even if it doesn't get nearly the same amount of care. I would be surprised if the newer neighbors water it. Still, it reseeds prolifically and continues to attract butterflies.
Passionflower (Passiflora caerulea or common passionflower) owes its name to Catholic missionaries in Brazil, who saw religious significance in its structure. To them, the spikes around the flower center symbolized the crown of thrones. The ten petals represented the faithful apostles, the three stigmata the nails, and the five anthers the wounds.
The fruit contains a sweet, floral-scented jelly used for cookery. The fruit from my plant isn't that lush, probably because I don't live in a rain forest. Its seeds are attractive to birds, though. The seed is contained in a sac with juice and pulp. Many of these sacs make up the inside of the fruit.
Many guests have admired the flowers and taken a fruit home with them, thinking the seeds within will grow. It's not that easy. When birds expel seeds, the seed covering is abraded in the bird's craw, so the seeds germinate more readily. Seeds taken directly from the fruit take longer to grow.
When birds expel the seeds in my yard, they sprout. I have dug up the resulting plants and put them in pots, and they have done well. They take about 18 months to produce fruit.
Passionflower seeds need to be kept in the dark to sprout. Since that is difficult to pull off, propagating a cutting may be easier.
Cut a six-inch stem before it hardens, cutting below the node. Remove the lower leaves and curly tendrils, dip the lower part of the cutting in rooting hormone, and put it in a container with potting mix. Use a pencil to make an inch-deep hole in the soil so you don't knock off the rooting hormone.
Water the newly planted cutting—not too much—and cover with a transparent plastic bag with ventilation holes. Put it in a shady location, don't let it dry out, and it should be ready to transplant in a few weeks.
I have also seen new plants form when a vine gets covered with dirt. If it gets watered, roots will spring forth, and soon you can have your very own jungle.
My current passionflower vines are distant descendants of Kristine's original purchase from Thrifty. When I remember to prune them in winter, the regrowth is lush, with lots of flowers. Even when I don't prune it, I still get flowers.
One year I decided to let my yard run loose and just call it a "wildlife habitat." A passionflower the size of a boa constrictor grew up into my walnut tree and I had a hard time getting it out.
I bought a second passionflower but confined it in a 15-gallon pot with a conical trellis. It is a brilliant purple and produces yellow fruit with rust-colored seeds--very striking. As a pollinator it is unsurpassed; bees and butterflies adore it. I use an organic fertilizer on it every few weeks.
I love this non-native, invasive, tropical plant because it lures butterflies to my yard. All butterflies like it. They like many other plants in my yard, but the passionflower is host to the gulf fritillary, which means this lovely orange butterfly feeds, breeds and lays its eggs there.
The gulf fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) was introduced to San Diego—no one knows how—in the 19th century. It was originally from the tropical New World. It made its way to the Bay Area by the 1950s and came to the North Bay after that. It has been spotted in Sacramento as well. Surprisingly, it survived the Big Freeze of 1990. The fritillary has no native host plants, and according to UC Davis, is entirely dependent on the passionflower.
I didn't know much about fritillaries until some visiting children pointed out how the caterpillars were skeletonizing my passionflowers. This is what we want the fritillary caterpillar to do—eat the leaves and fruit and metamorphose into a butterfly. Don't worry, the passionflower will grow back.
I prefer native plants as a butterfly habitat, but the passionflower is an exception. The fritillaries' antics--they chase each other around in the morning and afternoon sun--are amusing to watch, and the passionflower is easy to grow. The combination adds a playful dimension to your garden.
Napa Library Talk: Napa County Master Gardeners will give a talk on “California Native Bees and Creating Bee Habitat” on Thursday, September 2, from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. via Zoom. Learn how to attract bees of all kinds to your garden. Register here to receive the Zoom link.
Food Growing Forum: Napa CountyMaster Gardeners will present a discussion of “Culinary Herbs” on Sunday, September 12, from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., via Zoom. Register here to receive the Zoom link.
Free Guided Tree Walk: Join Master Gardeners of Napa County for a tree walk in Fuller Park in Napa on Tuesday, September 14, from 10 a.m. to noon. Limited to 12 people per walk. COVID safety protocols will be followed. You will be asked health questions and asked to sign in. Face masks and social distancing are required. Register here.
Got Garden Questions? Contact our Help Desk. The team is working remotely so please submit your questions through our diagnosis form, sending any photos to mastergardeners@countyofnapa.org or leave a detailed message at 707- 253-4143. A Master Gardener will get back to you by phone or email.
For more information visit http://napamg.ucanr.edu or find us on Facebook or Instagram, UC Master Gardeners of Napa County.