Lake Wales Rails-to-Trails: A Safe Harbor for Invasive Species
The Lake Wales Rails-to-Trails program has missed one of its three most important targets: the removal of invasive, non-native species. The Lake Wales “Rails-to-Trails” program is great in conception. Convert a short section of unused railway into a trail to be used by citizens. The program’s site is in the heart...
Johnny Butterflyseed Finds Scrub Plum (Prunus geniculata) Seedling in the Wild
Johnny Butterflyseed has found a Scrub Plum (Prunus geniculata) seedling in the wild, an exceptionally rare occurrence. Scrub Plum seedlings are so rare that determining the causes of their rarity was the central focus of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s recovery plan (USFWS, 1999). In annual censuses of...
Pipevine Swallowtail (Battus philenor) on Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa)
Milkweed are good for many kinds of butterfly.
Johnny Butterflyseed Celebrates First Scrub Plum (Prunus geniculata) Sprout
Johnny Butterflyseed’s first Scrub Plum
1001 Reasons to Plant Wild Lime (Zanthoxylum fagara) in Florida
Wild Lime (zanthoxylum fagara) provides food for Eastern Giant & Schaus’ Swallowtail butterfly larva, and can replace Japanese Boxwood in the yard or garden.
Swallow-tailed Kites Observed Eating Plant Material
Swallow-tailed Kites (Elanoides forficatus) are a migratory raptor who split their time between the southeastern US, and South America. They migrate to the Central Florida are by passing over (or sometimes around) the Gulf of Mexico. In the past, Johnny has been lucky enough to observe a large flock...
Happy Mother’s Day!
Happy Mother’s Day to all the Moms; especially Monarch Moms! <3 Johnny
Johnny Butterflyseed Submits Polk County’s First Scrub Plum Herbarium Specimen in Almost 34 Years
The endangered Scrub Plum (prunus geniculata) is submitted by Johnny Butterflyseed to two Florida herbaria, the first for Polk County in a third of a century.
Endocarp Removal Process for Scrub Plum
The best reproductive process for any vascular plant is its most natural process, i.e. that which is interfered with least. It will be a process that takes exactly as much time as it takes, and no less. But when the mechanisms for natural seed dispersal are severed, care must...
The Secret to Monarch Butterfly Farming
Johnny Butterflyseed has discovered the secret to Monarch Butterfly Farming! Fairies! That’s right, fairies! Fairies are sensitive little creatures that care very deeply about nature.More than just observers, fairy folk study, in wide-eyed wonder, the relationship between the things they see. They know which flower might feed an insect at any...