- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Hello, Friday Fly Day!
It's time to post an image of syrphid fly, aka hover fly or flower fly.
We took this dorsal view of a syrphid fly in January of 2009.
This syrphid fly, probably as Syrphus opinator, was warming its flight muscles in the Ruth Risdon Storer Garden, part of the 100-acre UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden. These flies are often mistaken for honey bees.
Interested in flower flies and their biological control roles? You'll want to read entomologist Robert Bugg's piece on "Flower Flies (Syrphidae) and Other Biological Control Agents for Aphids in Vegetable Crops" (Publication 8285, May 2008, University of California, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources.) Bugg, who holds a doctorate in entomology from UC Davis, and his four co-authors illustrated the 25-page research article with photos that will help you recognize many of the syrphids.
At the time Bugg was a senior analyst, agricutural ecology, UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program, UC Davis. Perfect name for an entomologist, don't you think?
Happy Friday Fly Day!
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The garden that bears her name in the UC Davis Arboretum is Nature at its Best, especially this time of year.
It's better known as the Storer Garden, but a plaque spells out the entire name, "Dr. Ruth Risdon Storer Garden."
It was dedicated to her on her 92nd birthday, on Feb. 25, 1980.
Who was she?
- The first woman physician on the UC Davis campus
- The first woman pediatrician practicing in Yolo County
- A dedicated member of the Friends of the Arboretum
- An alumnus of the University of California
- The wife of Tracy Irwin Storer, a UC alumnus and founding chair of the UC Davis Department of Zoology. Storer Hall is named for him.
- A philanthropist: she and her husband founded the Storer Endowment in Life Sciences.
The plaque also points out that she was "well known for her own beautiful garden and generously sharing their beauty and her knowledge."
Today is Friday of National Pollinator Week. At noon, we headed over to the Storer Garden on Garrod Drive. A graceful and generous lavender butterfly bush--reminiscent of Dr. Storer--was accepting all visitors: six-legged Western tiger swallowtails, monarchs, painted ladies, cabbage whites, honey bees, carpenter bees, bumble bees and assorted two-legged visitors. No reservations needed.
The showy Western tiger swallowtail (Papilio rutulus) fluttered, floated, sailed and soared. Her brilliant colors--yellow and black with a splash of blue--lit up the garden. No sun needed--not with the glorious colors of the Western tiger swallowtail around.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
When it ought to be raining, it's raining pink.
They say you can't fool Mother Nature or outsmart Father Time but that's not the case in the UC Davis Arboretum. A red Japanese apricot, Prunus mume "Matsubara red" glows with absolute radiance in the Storer Garden. It's a early bloomer, but this year it's really early due to the springlike temperatures.
We first noticed it blooming Jan. 5. It's still blooming, and honey bees--probably from the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility on Bee Biology Road--are all over it.
The flowering apricot bears the name "red Japanese apricot," but its origin is China and Korea. It's been cultivated in Asia for some 500 years.
If you've never been to the Storer Garden, you should go. As it says on the Arboretum website: "The Ruth Risdon Storer Garden is a Valley-wise garden, featuring flowering perennials and small shrubs that are especially well suited to Central Valley gardens, including many Arboretum All-Stars, our recommended plants for Valley-wise gardens. It is designed for year-round color with low water use and low maintenance, and features a demonstration planting of roses and companion plants. Educational exhibits highlight the principles of sustainable gardening. The garden is named for Dr. Ruth Storer, Yolo County’s first pediatrician and an avid gardener."
For most of January, it's been raining pink in the Storer Garden. Now we need the wet stuff.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Ah, what an intoxicating scent!
If you've ever been around the winter daphne, Daphne odora, cultivar "Aureomarginata," you know that its aroma precedes it.
You'll ask "What's that fragrance?" before you even see the showy pink-and-white blossoms and its green leaves edged in gold.
The winter daphne, an evergreen, is now blooming in the Ruth Risdon Storer Garden on Garrod Drive, UC Davis Arboretum.
The Storer Garden is aptly named. Ruth Storer, Yolo County’s first pediatrician, loved gardening.
We think she would have liked the honey bee hovering today in the dappled shadows of the daphne. "Table for one, please!"
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
It was not a good day to "stop and smell the roses."
A vespid wasp apparently lingered too long on a rose--perhaps dropping by for a sip of nectar or seeking unsuspecting prey.
What it found was another predator, a praying mantis looking for breakfast.
The scenario unfolded last week in the Storer Garden at the University of California, Davis.
The mantid grasped the wasp in its spiked forelegs and methodically began to consume it.
It bit into the head first, thorax next, and then snatched a wing.
All that was left: a wing and a prayer.