Category: Garden

Both my gardens and ones I visit

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Mystical Flower Reappears in a Kindness

About a week ago I passed by “the flower lady” house where I’ve gotten several new butterflies on her zinnias (now gone) and discovered as I looked through her fence that she had the Red Vein Indian Mallow flower I reported on from Guayabo Lodge in Cartago Province in , my first sighting of this magical lantern-like flower, and my favorite new discovery at Guayabo. I phone-snapped the above two shots at the flower lady house.

Then 3 days ago I was walking back to town with my neighbor Steve, and as he is a gardener I wanted him to see this flower. I was pointing to one of her only 5 or 6 blooms when her husband snapped out something he thought was funny in Spanish that I didn’t understand and she just walked over to the shrub, picked the flower I had pointed to and came over handing it to me. I felt terrible that she picked one of her few blooms but it was the common Costa Rican courtesy to do that because I praised her flower. I walked home carrying it gently and decided it best to just float in a bowl of water since it is a hang-down lantern-type flower. Another of the many cultural surprises I’ve had here. 🙂

It is prettier on the shrub, but here it is floating in water on my kitchen counter!

Since my Crown of Thorns pot plant on the patio died, I’m going to see if Cristian & Alfredo, my gardeners, can get me this Abutilon striatum, Red Vein Indian Mallow, “Chinese Lantern” or in Spanish: Abutilon pictum, “farolito japonés” (Japanese Lantern) as a new pot plant on my terrace. Always something new to look forward to. 🙂

It originated in South America, Brazil and other countries and has adapted to tropical climates all around the world including Costa Rica and India (thus the English common name). It is an edible flower both raw and cooked and is said to be both sweet and astringent, whatever that means. 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

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Double-striped Longtail

Though I did not get a folded wing view with the double stripes, the golden-based color of the bluish/turquoise back identify this longtail as the Double-striped Longtail (butterfliesandmoths site) which seems to be rarely seen. This is my first sighting that I know of. If you browse my CR Butterflies Galleries you will see that there are several other “Longtail” Skippers besides this one and each is interesting. And like so many of the butterflies, there are several others that look a lot like this one, especially this time the Esmeralda Longtail, Urbanus esmeraldus.

Double-striped Longtail Skipper, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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A Flight of Dragonflies

English-language websites say dragonfly groups are either clusters, flights or swarms and swarm implies a lot more than the 6 to 8 I had circling my garden the other day, do I assume looking for food? 🙂 The term “flight” is appropriate with my group because they never landed anywhere in my yard but just kept flying around in circles like they were looking for something until they flew away from my yard.

Wandering Glider (Pantala flavescens), Atenas, Costa Rica

Now that I’m getting used to my Costa Rica Dragonfly/Damselfly book, I’m more comfortable identifying these guys as the Wandering Glider, Pantala flavescens (Wikipedia link), whose name indicates that they have the “habit of long-term flying and then hanging up vertically” in a tree or other plant. They did not “hang” at my place but moved on. Since all dragonflies breed in and generally stay around water, they are probably from the little stream on the other side of the cow pasture in front of my house. This species is known for its long flights, but evidently my yard was not far enough for what they wanted. 🙂

Another reason for this ID is that the book says they are “the only medium-sized skimmer gold or yellow-orange overall.” That plus the red eyes and reddish or gold spots on the tip of their wings clinches the ID. Two more photos:

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Pink-spotted Cattleheart

I think this is a beautiful “Swallowtail-Like” butterfly that I’ve seen two other times before this; once before in my garden and once at Villa Calletas Hotel in Jaco Beach on the Pacific Coast. I know that at first glance, the spots above the crescents seem red rather than pink, but if you look at my top-view photo you can tell that they are more pink in some light. 🙂 Here’s four different photo views of one in my garden a week ago yesterday.

Pink-spotted Cattleheart, Atenas, Costa Rica
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Looking Up!

Yes, I could say that things are looking up as the number of Covid cases has greatly decreased, more people are out without a mask and businesses seem to be doing a little better, but this time I’m talking about literally looking up from my garden or terrace and seeing the beauty I miss when I only look down, like plants reaching for the sun, a beautiful leaf, and the flowers way up on the hill behind me! And I know that this is not the first post on “Looking Up” and probably won’t be the last, but it is with some fresh photos! 🙂

My favorite Cecropia or Guarumo Leaf, high on the tree, absorbing the sun!
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Giant White Butterfly

A fairly common butterfly here, I think. You can read about them on butterfliesandmoths.org with scientific name of Ganyra josephina, they are found from South Texas through Central America and I’ve seen quite a few here this year, though not this many that would pause long enough for a photo. 🙂 See my other photos of this butterfly in my Giant White Gallery. Or to see my photos of several other species of Whites, go to the bigger Costa Rica Butterflies Gallery. And here’s 4 shots of a Giant White in my garden the other day. Sorry they are damaged but it has been pretty windy this year which may be why . . .

Giant White, Atenas, Costa Rica
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Fiery Skipper (Maybe)

Because I’m choosing IDs for a website now I am even more cautious or unsure of my identifications now and still don’t have an expert to run it by. But this seems to be the closest match out of around a dozen orange and brown Skipper butterflies in my book, A Swift Guide to Butterflies of Mexico and Central America, which I still depend on mostly. The website I’m volunteering for as Costa Rica Coordinator has so many different photos of this species that it makes it even more confusing, but as one of the most frequently cited species in this color I’m probably safe. 🙂 Size: about as big as my thumb.

Here’s my five totally different views of this orangey butterfly from two different days in my garden that I hope I have labeled correctly . . .

Fiery Skipper, Atenas, Costa Rica
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Awed by Designs, Colors, Shapes, “Little Things” . . .

. . . in appreciation of the beauty of dying leaves, which happens year around here (no “Fall” as such), I recently snapped, one on a sidewalk in town and the other in my yard, plus the contrast of two favorite green leaves below! 🙂

Unidentified leaf on sidewalk downtown Atenas, Costa Rica.
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New Thumbnail-sized Butterfly

I really struggled with the ID on this butterfly, thinking at first it was one of the Sarota Jewelmarks which are all tiny, but the patterns just did not match any of them. Then moving into the Metalmarks I found two that had similar patterns with colors and dark center matching best with the Rounded Metalmark, Caliphelis perditalis (link to butterfliesandmoths.org). There seem to be a lot of these in Mexico and Texas while I’m the first to note one in Costa Rica on the above website. Here’s two shots from different angles, though he never landed with his wings folded which is the other shot I try to get for ID purposes . . .

Rounded Metalmark, Cliphelis perditalis, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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Blomfild’s Beauty

Not a new butterfly for me though the first one seen this year. It is beautiful in it’s own complicated sort of way like a paisley design? 🙂

The scientific name is Smyrna blomfildia (Butterfliesandmoths.org) and it is found throughout Central America and Mexico and the southwestern fringes of the United States. Just two shots here and FYI, that is a narrow ceiling level screen for air flow in my laundry room (much lint) and I did vacuum the screen after seeing these photos! 🙂

Blomfild’s Beauty, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Blomfild’s Beauty, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

See other photos in my Blomfild’s Beauty Gallery.

¡Pura Vida!