Welcome to my zone 9 garden. My roots are deeply planted in the sandy soil of sub-tropical central Florida, where the summers are long and hot, but the rest of the year is paradise!

Thursday, November 15, 2007

A Super-sized Butterfly


As I walked out to get the mail one afternoon, I spotted this HUGE butterfly (Eastern Tiger Swallowtail) out of the corner of my eye. I quickly ran back inside for my camera, and lucky for me this big fella was in no hurry to leave this plentiful source (glory bower) of nectar. I was fascinated by his size, and he was very agreeable to posing for me while I snapped multiple shots of him. This one turned out the best, but I couldn't resist including this other shot of him in flight. The movement of his wings blurred the lines and seemed to create the look of a periwinkle blue aura surrounding him. Cool!

6 comments:

Meems said...

those swallowtails are gigantic and great posers once they start sipping.

my glory bower has shot up volunteer plants everywhere... does yours do that too?

Susan said...

Meems...Yes, those glory bower's are almost obnoxious. They've even traveled under a front sidewalk to another flowerbed. They are a little out of control...

Connie said...

Wow...that is an awesome butterfly!

Susan said...

Connie...She (or he) is a beauty! My daughter and I discovered 13 zebra longwings folded flat and hanging from an oak branch. We think they had just come out of their cocoons. That was a really cool site, unfortunately we didn't have the camera with us :-(

Anonymous said...

Glory bower plant? I have been wondering for years what this plant was I have a row of them by my shed. I love the swallowtails, after recent knee surgery and sat and watched them come to my dwarf poinsianna tree. ps. ever heard of a plant called "peruvian mayapple"? has maple tree like leaves and clusters of white flowers, grows high and tree like.

sue ellen

Susan said...

godey...hi, and welcome to my blog. No, I have never heard of a Peruvian mayapple. It sounds beautiful though.

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