South Florida Butterflies

These are they beauties that frequent my garden. There are some that are hard to capture without a better camera set-up hence there is only one picture. Such as the Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes) Cloudless Sulphur (Phoebis sennae) and some are just to common ie: Monarch (Danaus plexippus) to show here. You can see all the pictures in a larger format by clicking on them. I recommend opening them in a new tab.

enjoy
Eric

Family/Subfamily: Nymphalidae/Heliconiiae •
Genus: Heliconius •
Species: charitonius •
Common Names: Zebra Longwing •

Family/Subfamily: Lycaenidae/Polyommatinae •
Genus: Leptotes •
Species: cassius •
Common Names: Cassius Blue •

Family/Subfamily: Nymphalidae/Nymphalinae •
Genus: Anartia •
Species: jatrophae •
Common Names: White Peacock •

Family/Subfamily: Nymphalidae/Limenitidinae •

Genus: Marpesia •
Species: petreus •
Common Names: Ruddy Daggerwing •

Family/Subfamily: Pieridae/Coliadinae •

Genus: Phoebis •
Species: sennae •
Common Names: Cloudless Sulphur •

Family/Subfamily: Nymphalidae/Heliconiiae •

Genus: Agraulis •
Species: vanillae •
Common Names: Gulf Fritillary •

Family/Subfamily: Papilionidae/Papilioninae •

Genus: Papilio •
Species: cresphontes •
Common Names: Giant Swallowtail •

I verified all these id's with 'Butterflies of Florida' by Jaret C. Daniels


South Florida Butterflies by Eric Bronson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.flickr.com

'Jamaican Red' Banana Harvest

So at last the red bananas are ready to eat!!! I ended up with four hands 2 w/twelve fruits, 1 w/ten fruits and 1 w/fourteen giving me a total of 48 bananas. They're organic and super sweet. This is one of my favorite fringe benefits of gardening! It took roughly ninety days from flower to fruit.

This is a medium size banana tree that has fruits with red skin. The inside of the fruit is more orange than yellow. This is considered the best dessert banana in the Caribbean.
this is an excerpt of my original post seen here.

Family: Musaceae •
Genus: Musa •
Species: acuminata (Colla) 1820 •
Country of Origin: Indo-Malaysian region reaching to northern Australia •
Common Names: 'Jamaican Red' •




'Jamaican Red' Banana Harvest by Eric Bronson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.flickr.com

Nephelium lappaceum Rambutan Seedling

Family: Sapindaceae •
Genus: Nephelium •
Species: lappaceum (L.) •
Country of Origin: Malay Archipelago •
Common Names: Rambutan, Mamón Chino •

I purchased some fruit from Whole Foods™ market nine to be exact. After chowing down on the fruit, which were delicious! I cleaned up the seeds and planted them. Only the one seen here sprouted. It seems to be doing well though. I'll posts updates from time to time. 'Fruits of Warm Climates' by J. Morton, says that this species is dioecious. Hopefully the tree will turn out a hermaphrodite so it will produce fruit. If not I'll be looking for some budwood to do a graft. Anyone growing Rambutan?

The rambutan tree reaches 50 to 80 ft (15-25 m) in height, has a straight trunk to 2 ft (60 cm) wide, and a dense, usually spreading crown. The evergreen leaves are alternate, pinnately compound, 2 3/4 to 12 in (7-30 cm) long, with reddish rachis, hairy when young, and 1 to 4 pairs of leaflets, subopposite or alternate, elliptic to oblong-elliptic, or rather obovate, sometimes oblique at the base; slightly leathery; yellowish-green to dark-green and somewhat dull on the upper surface, yellowish or bluish-green beneath; 2 to 8 in (5-20 cm) long, 1 to 4 1/3 in (2.5-11 cm) wide, the 6 to 15 pairs of principal veins prominent on the underside. The small, petalless flowers, of three kinds: males, hermaphrodite functioning as males, and hermaphrodite functioning as females, are borne in axillary or pseudo-terminal, much branched, hairy panicles.

These are the fruits the seeds came from.

The fruit is ovoid, or ellipsoid, pinkish-red, bright-or deep-red, orange-red, maroon or dark-purple, yellowish-red, or all yellow or orange-yellow; 1 1/3 to 3 1/8 in (3.4-8 cm) long. Its thin, leathery rind is covered with tubercles from each of which extends a soft, fleshy, red, pinkish, or yellow spine 1/5 to 3/4 in (0.5-2 cm) long, the tips deciduous in some types. The somewhat hairlike covering is responsible for the common name of the fruit, which is based on the Malay word "rambut", meaning "hair". Within is the white or rose-tinted, translucent, juicy, acid, subacid or sweet flesh, 1/6 to 1/3 in (0.4-0.8 cm) thick, adhering more or less to the ovoid or oblong, somewhat flattened seed, which is 1 to 1 1/3 in (2.5-3.4 cm) long and 2/5 to 3/5 in (1-1.5 cm) wide. There may be 1 or 2 small undeveloped fruits nestled close to the stem of a mature fruit.
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/rambutan.html



Nephelium lappaceum Rambutan Seedling by Eric Bronson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.flickr.com

Torenia fournieri or Look at the little beauty that volunteered part II

I was walking around the yard today and right where the other plant is. I found this little pink variety, cool huh? They're just self-seeding. I'm sure glad I didn't just pull them up thinking the were weeds. Here's my post from the other day http://ilikerareplants.blogspot.com/2008/10/look-at-little-beauty-that-volunteered.html


...and a few more clearer pics of the blue variety!!!


Family: Scrophulariaceae •
Genus: Torenia •
Species: fournieri •
Country of Origin: Viet Nam •
Common Names: Wishbone Flower, Bluewings, •


Torenia fournieri by Eric Bronson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.flickr.com

Torenia fournieri or Look at the little beauty that volunteered

All sorts of things pop up in my yard, and before I just pull them out as weeds. I like to see what they are. This is my latest volunteer.


I wasn't sure what it was. My friend Nuytsia@Tas www.flickr.com/people/nuytsia_pix/ gave me a speedy and proper id!!!! It's called (Torenia fournieri) or Blue Wings and it has most unusual looking flowers! It must be a little invasive because, I don't grow this and it is the second time one of these has sprouted.




Family: Scrophulariaceae •
Genus: Torenia •
Species: fournieri •
Country of Origin: Viet Nam •
Common Names: Wishbone Flower, Bluewings, •



Torenia fournieri by Eric Bronson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.flickr.com

Cool stuff around my yard part II or weeds!

These are picture of assorted weeds from around my garden, can you believe it weeds!

Bidens alba

No Id yet!
Ipomoea cordatotriloba or Tie Vine it is one of our native morning glories it has the tiniest little flowers.

Emilia fosbergii or Florida Tassleflower I believe it has two different forms this is the purple here.....
..and this is pinkish-red!

Thanks to flickr.com/people/scottzona/ for helping Id these plants!



Cool stuff around my yard part II or weeds! by Eric Bronson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.flickr.com

Cool stuff around my yard......

Combretum aubletii - Monkey's Brush, is native to Brazil. I just had to share its beautiful foliage. No, it's not diseased, it changes colors as it matures and wait till you see the flowers they are amazing!


Dendrobium bullenianum - I have some new shoots here's more pics and info http://ilikerareplants.blogspot.com/2008/07/dendrobium-bullenianum.html

Prosthechea cochleata - roots. This species is native to Florida so I'm naturalizing it on a Tabebuia impetiginosa This is one of the other orchids I was talking about in a earlier post. http://ilikerareplants.blogspot.com/2008/09/naturalizing-orchids.html

Ren. philippinesis x kaisum - one of my new purchases this year and it's blooming already!!!

Anthurium sp. [S-170-02] - look at the root system this plant has developed. It loves it in that terra-cotta pot. Awesome flower too!

Tillandsia sp. - This native bromeliad was pollinated and now I have a seed pod. I need to do a little research on how to propagate this plant.


Musa sp. - Banana this is a new acquisition a friend gave me. The only thing he knew about it is that it was from Colombia. I have a peeper already.


Cool stuff around my yard......by Eric Bronson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.flickr.com