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Posts Tagged: blanketflower
About Those Two-Headed Butterflies...
UC Davis distinguished professor Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology at the University of California, Davis, gets queries about two-headed butterflies. A two-headed butterfly? A wonderful and surprising find of a new species?...
A two-headed butterfly? No, a male and female Gulf Fritillary, Agraulis vanillae, keeping busy on a Gaillardia or blanket flower. The butterflies are also known as "passion butterflies." Their host plant is the passionlower vine, Passiflora. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Pollen Power Reigns Supreme
You may have lost track of the hours, days, weeks and months due to the coronavirus pandemic, but how can you forget National Pollinator Week? Especially if you've ventured out in your yard, garden or park and witnessed the pollinators doing what they...
A honey bee dusted with pollen from the blanket flower, Gaillardia, in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
UC Davis Arboretum Plant Sale on March 10; Why Not Think Gaillardia?
If you've been thinking about blanketing your garden with blanketflower (Gaillardia), you're in luck. The UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden is hosting a spring plant sale from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday, March 10 at its Arboretum Teaching Nursery on...
A pollen-covered honey bee forages on a Gallardia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A black-tailed bumble bee, Bombus californicus, forages on a Gaillardia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Gulf Fritillary butterfly, Agraulis vanillae, flutters on a Gaillardia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus, spreads its wings on a Gaillardia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A syrphid fly, also called a hover fly or flower fly, stakes out a Gaillardia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Pollinators aren't the only insects that like Gaillardia. Here a praying mantis lies in wait. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Prey for Me
Whenever folks post photos of praying mantids, their readers expect to see prey. You know, the hapless bee or butterfly that made the fatal mistake of getting too close to those spiked forelegs. This praying mantis (below) appeared to have been a...
A praying mantis perches on a blanketflower, Gaillardia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Well, hello there! (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Praying mantis startles a honey bee. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A close-up view of an antenna of a praying mantis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Bee on a Blanket
The first day of May calls for a little color. And the blanket flower (Gaillardia) fills the bill. Native to North and South America, it's a member of the sunflower family, Asteraceae. Its delightful yellow and red flowers remind us of the Native...
A honey bee heading for the blanket flower, Gaillardia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey bee foraging on a blanket flower, Gaillardia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
It's off for another blanket flower blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
