As I mentioned in a recent post, Cloudless Sulphurs are laying eggs on our Partridge Pea out in Catch the Wind. Partridge Pea is a senna, a legume. If you have it growing in your yard you will have Cloudless Sulphur caterpillars on the plant, it’s a fairly certain thing in our area. The butterfly is common from about mid July to November, most common in August and September, right now! Cloudless Sulphurs presumably get their common name from theRead more
Posts tagged: #Partridge Pea
My, how they’ve grown!
A recent post to this Journal featured two caterpillars, one of those was the larva of a Cloudless Sulphur butterfly on Partridge Pea in Catch the Wind. On August 2, I noticed one of these large yellow sulphurs lay at least one egg on the plant. Fives days later I saw one, then two, caterpillars munching away on the plant’s flowers. It’s now August 15, and the caterpillars have grown considerably. They will probably crawl off to pupate within aRead more
Pupae Plus
I’ve been casually checking for Cloudless Sulphur pupae out in Catch the Wind for the past two years. I’d not found one until now! On September 11 as I walked past the patch of Partridge Pea in Catch the Wind I noticed that a Cloudless Sulphur caterpillar had attached itself to a pea pod on one of the plants and had curled itself into a “J” on the underside of the pod. I couldn’t wait until the following morning. IfRead more
Turning the Corner
Although it’s September, it was more than two weeks ago that I began to feel the change. Something was different. Oh sure, the temperatures were in the eighties for a few days and it felt really, really nice, but that’s not what I mean. We’ve crossed a line, internal triggers have been tripped, a biological turning point has been reached. The wildlife can feel it, the trees are reacting to it, and I feel it too. It’s not fall butRead more
Late Summer Flowers
In bloom in August were Boneset, Partridge Pea, and Goldenrod. The flowers of Boneset and Goldenrod are great places to look for insects as they search for nectar sources at this time of year. The Partridge Pea should be watched for Cloudless Sulphur Caterpillars during the next several weeks (September). There’s still a few Butterfly Weeds in bloom in Catch the Wind; check it for hairstreaks and other butterflies. Silky Dogwood (Cornus), which, at the beginning of this period, had deep blue berries among itsRead more
Two Yellow Flowers
Partridge Pea is blooming, most notably, just as you enter Catch the Wind from Explore the Wild on the back side of the Explore the Wild/Catch the Wind Loop. Note the fern-like compound leaves and the five yellow, different-sized petals on the flowers (image here). The flowers often appear as if they’re not quite fully opened. Besides being an easy plant to look at, Partridge Pea serves as the host plant for certain sulphur butterflies in our area: Little Yellow,Read more