Skip to main content

Manfredas and Moths

As much as I enjoy watching the changes in my garden this time of year, this week brought a couple of real standouts.  The larkspur thicket is hosting a NectarFest for several White-lined Sphinx Moths, also referred to as hummingbird moths, and the Manfreda 'Chocolate Chips' is competing for attention nearby. 


The White-lined Sphinx Moth is one of three "hummingbird moths" species found in the Austin area. The shot above shows the wing colors, although in flight its wings seem to disappear.   These moths zip and hover just like their namesake bird, and in my garden are often spotted just before dusk rather than at night.  Although I'm not much of a photographer, I somehow managed to capture a close-up showing the long proboscis of this interesting creature.  


My other current garden standout is one of the most interesting pass along plants I've ever received.   A couple of years ago it migrated my way from Eleanor, another Austin garden blogger.  It's a Manfreda undulata 'Chocolate Chips' with strappy foliage so striking, it wouldn't matter if it ever bloomed; but bloom it does.  This year it produced four bloom spikes and enough scent to clear a large room.  If you've never had a close encounter with this alien bloom, be warned the scent is similar to burning plastic with just the lightest hint of frightened skunk.  But don't let that scare you off.  Its scent is more than compensated for by its beauty.  Having already established myself as a non-photographer, I refer you to the wonderful post on Pam Penick's blog "Digging" for more polished images of this amazing plant.


Having wasted much of my day (week, really) peeking in on the New York Times hawk cam, just wanted to share a few thoughts before turning in.  Please leave a comment - I'd love to hear about the strange and wonderful things showing up in your garden right now.  


Labels:

Comments

Steph@RamblingWren said…
Great pictures. I just saw one a White-lined Sphinx Moth last night on my Black and Blue Sage. I love the pink and brown color on this hummingbird moth.
April 25, 2012 at 7:34 AM
Rilly said…
Your Sphinx moth almost looks like a paper cutout, I've never seen or heard of a hummingbird moth, but it's beautiful. The only thing strange and wonderful in my yard at the moment is the sun. It's been a real stranger this winter. What I love most is time of year is the appearance of the Goldfinch, which are also running late. My yard is at the height of dull and boring today. I thrive on blogs like yours, which are enjoying color already.
April 25, 2012 at 9:42 AM
vbdb said…
Rilly - This year, we're having to learn how to garden all over again in our area. Things that normally freeze to the ground were still blooming and growing over the winter. Thanks for sharing about your garden.
April 25, 2012 at 10:17 AM
Pam/Digging said…
Thanks for the link, Vicki. I never thought to smell those blossoms -- thanks for the warning!
April 27, 2012 at 7:33 PM
Carla said…
Great pics!! Love these moths!!
June 6, 2012 at 8:54 AM
Marie H. said…
Hi, I just happened upon your blog. So glad to see it, as I too captured a photo of the "Hummingbird Moth" at Lost Maples State Park two weeks ago. We could not figure out what it was, but soon discovered it's underside confirming it was a moth. We had no idea they could hoover just like hummingbirds. So pretty.

Thank you for your wonderful blog. I will be checking in.
Marie
San Antonio
March 28, 2013 at 4:11 PM
Unknown said…
I just had one feeding on my blue bells in my garden in Roselle Illinois
September 19, 2013 at 6:06 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ho-hum to Habitat: My Path to Native Bees - Resources

San Antonio's Festival of Flowers will resume this Saturday, June 3, 2023, after a break of three years.    I've been given the opportunity to share how I garden, as well as a general overview of our native bees.   A link to a Google doc containing my handout (the info dense slides from my presentation) follows this list of resources.  Note that if you didn't attend, some of the handout pages may not make complete sense.     Hyperlinks to more resources: https://www.wildbeestexas.com/ https://w3.biosci.utexas.edu/jha/research/native-bee-communities https://www.wildflower.org/collections/collection.php?collection=TX_central https://www.pollinator.org/pollinator.org/assets/generalFiles/BeginnerBeeFieldGuide_11March2022_LowRez.pdf https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/wildlife_diversity/nongame/native-pollinators/bumblebee-id.phtml https://www.pollinatorphotos.com/ https://www.homegrownnationalpark.org/       https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yOIlJFjzgAlhc5nfTXkqrVutPxWHLwfQ/vie
Post a Comment
Read more

A Plant with Purple Leaves

There are a couple of groups on Facebook where I lurk and occasionally dip my opinion into the fray.  They're places where people with knowledge of unbelievable scope can be observed, deftly identifying this obscure native plant or that scraggly left-behind orphan found in the backyard of a newly purchased home.   One such backyard orphan recently was posted in need of identification.   If it were a native plant, two people on "Texas Flora" would've named it within minutes.  Even the taxonomy of those impossible grasses is typically put to rest in seconds.  Not so with this poor guy.   At first I was fairly certain it was one of the purple leafed basils, maybe 'African Blue'.  It's fairly impossible to find it still thriving in a Texas January, but two plants in my yard are still hanging in there.  They even look like they'll come back if we don't have a deep freeze before spring.  BTW, this basil has one heck of a botanical monik
1 comment
Read more

Bloom Day 03.09

Yellow bulbine, Asian ground orchids, and a Pat Austin rose are three of the shows currently appearing in my garden. But, what I'm really excited to tell you about are these irises... My husband and I rescued these last year after I noticed a familiar crown shape off to the side of the road. I joked then that being moved from blazing sun and neglect in a former pasture to a place of honor in well amended soil and constant attention in my garden would probably kill them. Instead, they've quadrupled in size and rewarded us with the most interesting blooms. Many of them have petals that are exactly one half purple and one half white. I've started calling it Night and Day, both for the change in their growing conditions and for their unique coloring. Another interesting iris blooming right now is one that develops absolutely NO stem. It's hard to capture in a picture, but here's my best effort. The blooms are silvery white with a small amount of purple deep inside. I
34 comments
Read more