Prime Plants for Nature: Backyards for Nature 2016 Native Plant Awards

Posted on May 3, 2016 by barb

By Edie Parnum

Every year we feature two superior native plant species. One of the Prime Plants for Nature is a Tree or Shrub and the other is a Perennial. Prime Plants are selected based on these criteria:

Be native to southeastern Pennsylvania.
Offer high wildlife value and contribute significantly to your property’s web of life.
Provide food for wildlife. Nutritious fruits, seeds, nuts, nectar, or pollen are produced by the plant. Most host insects that are eaten by birds or other animals.
Offer shelter and places to raise young.
Be easy to grow and make an attractive addition to your landscape.
Sold at native plant nurseries and native plant sales. (See list at end of article.)

Our selections for the 2016 Prime Plants for Nature awards are:

Black Cherry, Prunus serotina

Wildlife Value: This medium-sized deciduous tree delivers exceptional wildlife value.

When the young caterpoillars emerge, the eat the cherr leaves. © Barb Eliot. Click to enlarge.

Red-spotted Purple butterflies lay their eggs on the tips of Black Cherry leaves. © Barb Elliot. Click to enlarge.

According to Doug Tallamy, author of Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants, it hosts 456 species of moths and butterfly caterpillars. The foliage-eating caterpillars include Red-spotted Purple butterflies and moths such as Luna, Polyphemus, and Cecropia. The tree is not defoliated because many migrating and breeding birds including warblers, vireos, and thrushes feed on these caterpillars. Yellow-billed Cuckoos will eat Eastern Tent Caterpillars.

Luna Moth is another of the 456 lepidoptera species caterpillars that eat Back Cherry. Photo © Adrian Binns. Click to enlarge.

In late summer Black Cherry produces a copious crop of berries that are enjoyed by 33 species of birds including American Robin, Gray Catbird, Northern Mockingbird, Baltimore Oriole, Cedar Waxwing, and various woodpeckers. Native bees and flies pollinate the flowers.

Many birds eat these Black Cherry fruits in late summer. Click to enlarge.

Growing Conditions: Adaptable to a variety of situations, sun or part sun, dry to moist soil. Seedlings can be transplanted.

Appearance: Medium to large fast-growing deciduous tree with dark, peeling bark. White flowers bloom in May on drooping stalks called racemes. The reddish-black fruits ripen in late summer.

Cardinal Flower, Lobelia cardinalis

Wildlife Value: If you want to entice hummingbirds to your yard, this is a must-have perennial. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are attracted to the Cardinal Flower’s brilliant red flowers and are its primary pollinators. The nectar is very sweet, twice as sweet as a soda. A hummingbird’s bill is long enough to reach the nectar deep inside the tubular

The Ruby-throated Himmingbird is the primary pollinator for Cardinal Flower. It's long bill and tongue can reach the nectar deep inside the blossom. It's head feathers pick up pollen from the anther. Photo © Barb Elliot. Click to enlarge.

The Ruby-throated Hummingbird is the primary pollinator for Cardinal Flower. It’s long bill and tongue can reach the nectar deep inside the blossom. It’s head feathers pick up pollen from the anther. Photo © Barb Elliot. Click to enlarge.

flower. The feathers on the head pick up the pollen and carry it from one plant to another. Cardinal Flowers bloom for six weeks in the late summer during the hummingbirds’ southbound migration. Bees rarely visit these flowers because their proboscis is too short to access the nectar.

The Spicebush Swallowtail’s long proboscis can reach the nectar, but the pollen remains untouched. SCJack.blogspot.com photo. Click to enlarge.

Large swallowtail butterflies can reach the nectar with their long proboscis but are unable to pick up and transfer the pollen.

Growing Conditions: Cardinal Flower is a trouble-free perennial that enjoys moist soil. It will grow in average soil in a shady location. Not a true perennial, the plant and roots die after the growing season. However, the next spring it produces off-sets that will flower or can be transplanted to new locations. The parent plant also produces seedlings that can be transplanted. In the late fall, lay the flower stalk on the ground where you want seedlings to sprout in the spring. Appearance: The striking red flowers are arranged along 8” spikes called racemes. The plant grows 2 ½ -3 feet high. The flowers are attractive additions to flower arrangements.

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Complete List of Backyards for Nature’s Prime Plants for Nature

Trees

Betula nigra, River Birch

Juniperus virginiana, Eastern Red Cedar

Prunus serotina, Black Cherry

Quercus alba, White Oak

Perennials

Asclepias incarnata, Swamp Milkweed

Lobelia cardinalis, Cardinal Flower

Monarda fistulosa, Wild Bergamot

Pycnanthemum muticum, Short-toothed Mountainmint

For information about each plant, see Previous Posts

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Sources of Native Plants

Collins Nursery, 773 Roslyn Avenue, Glenside, PA 19038. Native trees, shrubs, and some perennials. Spring and fall open houses. Otherwise appointment necessary. 215-715-3439 or collinsnursery.com.

David Brothers Native Plant Nursery, Whitehall Road, Norristown, PA 19403. Native trees, shrubs, and perennials. 610-584-1550 or davidbrothers.com

Edge of the Woods Nursery, 2415 Route 100, Orefield, PA 18069. Native trees, shrubs, and perennials. 610-393-2570 or edgeofthewoodsnursery.com.

Gateway Garden Center, 7277 Lancaster Pike, Hockessin DE19707. Native trees, shrubs, and perennials. 302-239-2727 or gatewaygardens.com.

Jenkins Arboretum, 631 Berwyn Baptist Road, Devon, PA 19333. 610647-8870 or jenkinsarboretum.org. Outdoor plant shop open daily 9-4 late April through mid-October.

Redbud Native Plant Nursery, 643 West Baltimore Ave., Media, PA. Native trees, shrubs, and perennials. 610-892-2833 or redbudnativeplantnursery.com.

Russell Gardens Wholesale, 600 New Road, Southampton, PA 18966. Wholesale perennials, many native, sold to public. Pre-order for convenient pick-up. 215-322-4799 or russellwholesale.com.

Sugarbush Nursery, 4272 Morgantown Road, Mohnton, PA 19540. Native trees, shrubs, and perennials. 610-856-0998 or sugarbushnursery.com.

Yellow Springs Farm, 1165 Yellow Springs Road, Chester Springs, PA 19425. Native trees, shrubs, and perennials. Landscape design and consultation services available. Spring and fall open houses. On-line and phone orders available. Otherwise call for appointment. 610-827-2014 or yellowspringsfarm.com.

Native Plant Sales

Bartram’s Garden, 5400 Lindbergh Boulevard, Philadelphia, PA 19143. 215-729-5281 or bartramsgarden.org. Spring and fall sales.

Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve, 1635 River Rd. New Hope, PA 18938. 215-862-2924 or bhwp.org. Spring and fall plant sales.

Brandywine Conservancy, Routes 1 and 100, P.O. Box 141, Chadds Ford, PA 19317. 610-388-2700 or brandywine.org/conservancy. Mother’s Day weekend. Seeds also available.

Delaware Nature Society, Cloverdale Farm Preserve, 543 Way Road, Greenville, DE 19807. 302-239-2334 or delawarenaturesociety.org. First weekend in May.

Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust, 2955 Edge Hill Road, Huntington Valley, PA 19006. 215-657-0830 or pennypacktrust.org. Spring and fall plant sales.

Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, 8480 Hagys Mill Rd., Philadelphia 19128. 215-482-7300 or schuylkillcenter.org. Spring and fall plant sales.

National Moth Week: Why? What Good are Moths?

Posted on July 18, 2014 by barb

By Barb Elliot

Moths, really? Yes, we’ll celebrate moths this coming week, July 19 – 27. During National Moth Week public and private moth-watching events will occur. Mothing, the practice of attracting, viewing, and photographing moths is growing immensely in popularity. But some are puzzled and ask, “What good are moths?” Butterflies are great, but moths are nasty. After all, moth caterpillars eat tomato plants, make holes in wool clothes, eat flour and cereal in our kitchens, and can be agricultural pests. This is all true, but harmful moths are but a small fraction of moth species. Most are actually very important and beneficial to the environment.

The Cecropia Moth has a 6 inch wingspan. Creative Commons photo. Click to enlarge.

The Cecropia Moth. Creative Commons photo. Click to enlarge.

In fact, moths are closely related to our much-loved butterflies. Both are in the scientific order Lepidoptera, meaning “scaly wings”. All butterflies and moths have four wings covered with colored scales. Both groups go through four life stages: egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa (chrysalis/cocoon), and adult (butterfly/moth). Adult butterflies and moths also have a proboscis – a thin, straw-like tube for sipping nectar. However, all butterflies fly during the day, but most moths fly at night. The tips of butterfly antennae are club-like, while moth antennae are

Butterflies antennae tips are club-like. Photo from National Moth Week presentation.

Butterflies antennae tips are club-like. Photo from National Moth Week. Click to enlarge.

Moth antennae come in three forms. Photo from National Moth Week. Click to enlarge.

more varied in structure. . Some moths have hairy-looking elongated scales on their bodies. These may provide greater protection from the environment and help them maintain their temperature – useful on cool nights.

But what good are moths? Widespread and numerous (nearly 13,000 species in the U.S. vs. just 1,000 butterfly species) they play key roles in ecosystems. As pollinators of night-blooming plants, they are very important. Unlike bees, moths do not eat or gather pollen. However, their hairy bodies collect and spread pollen as they move from plant to plant.

Dark-banded Owlet moth sipping nectar from Common Milkweed in Barb’s yard. Photo © Barb Elliot. Click to enlarge.

Many plants depend on this nocturnal pollination to maximize seed production. A few cannot reproduce at all without moth pollination. The proboscis of some moths can be many inches long, enabling the moth to reach nectar at the end of elongated flower tubes that are too long for bees.

Moths, both adults and caterpillars, are key food sources for many animals. Other insects, spiders, birds, bats, frogs, toads, lizards, rodents, foxes, and even bears consume moths. As indicators of biodiversity and the health of our environment, they function as “canaries in the coalmine.” Almost all moth caterpillars require specific plants as food. Less diversity in native plants means less food for moth caterpillars and therefore, fewer species and numbers of moths. The result — less food to power the web of life.

Luna Moth. © Edie Parnum. Click to enlarge.

Many moths are beautiful, like the lovely Luna Moth. Less impressive moths are often masters of mimicry or camouflage. Some mimic scary-looking animals such as snakes. Others, such as the Io Moth, have huge “eyes” to startle predators. Some look like bark, dead leaves, lichens, or even bird droppings– making it almost impossible to spot them.

IO Moth revealing its”eyes” for startling predators. © Barb Elliot. Click to enlarge.

Copper Underwing Moth camouflaged on tree bark. © Barb Elliot. Click to enlarge.

I find moths to be downright interesting creatures. For instance, the beautiful and large adults of the Giant Silk Moth family have captivating life histories. These moths, such as the Luna, Tulip-tree, Cecropia, or Polyphemus, live for only a week or two — just long enough to attract or search out mates and for females to lay eggs. With reduced mouthparts, these moths are unable to eat. Females emit chemical scents called pheromones to attract males. Males in this family have large, feathery antennae to detect pheromones from as far as seven miles away. They want to make a beeline to the female!

Moths come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some are as tiny as the tip of a pencil. The Cecropia Moth (shown above), our largest moth, has a 6” wingspan. Some rest with their wings flat. Many hold them vertically like some butterflies. Others fold them like tents over their bodies.

Yellow-collared Slug Moth with its abdomen curled up. © Edie Parnum. Click to enlarge.

A few curl their abdomens up above their wings, an odd posture that is likely part of their mimicry or camouflage. Sphinx or Hawk moths display outstanding flight dynamics. They can fly very quickly, hover, and move rapidly from side-to-side. In fact, the flight aerodynamics of some Micro-aerial Vehicles’ (MAVs) are being designed by the military to emulate Sphinx moth flight.

Both Edie, my Backyards for Nature colleague, and I now consider ourselves to be “moth-ers”. We frequently have “moth nights” in our yards. We attract the moths by shining special lights onto a white sheet, a place where they can land. By painting fermented bait onto tree trunk, we can attract moths that don’t come to lights. We follow Moths of the Eastern United States on Facebook and note what moths are being seen by other enthusiasts. In June, Edie and I attended Mothapalooza, a weekend moth conference in Ohio. With 150 participants, it sold out within two weeks of being announced – a testament to the burgeoning popularity of mothing. We visited five mothing stations that hosted thousands of moths. We were up until the wee hours, but had great fun.

Try mothing yourself. At first keep it simple. Leave your porch light on for the evening. Go out periodically to see what moths have flown in. With a flashlight, look for moths nectaring on your flowers. Fragrant, white, and pink flowers are particularly alluring. Look closely,

Ultronia Underwing sipping juices from rotting fruit. © Barb Elliot. Click to enlarge.

and you’ll see each moth using its proboscis to suck up nectar. Or, put out a plate of rotting fruit and check for moths that stop by for a sugary drink.

Invite family and friends for a moth night in your yard. See Edie’s Moth Night blog post from last year for moth night ideas, a bait recipe, and host plants for moth caterpillars. Check the National Moth Week website for public events in your area and tips on finding moths. All across the United States and in many countries of the world, moth-ers will be celebrating moths.

Moths are good! They play key roles in the web of life. Plus, they are fascinating creatures. These gems are outside your door at night. Try mothing, but I warn you that it can become addictive. Like a treasure hunt, you never know what may fly in. Become a moth-er and … welcome to the dark side!

Resources

Beadle, David & Leckie, Seabrooke. Peterson Field Guide to Moths of Northeastern North America. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012.

Himmelman, John. Discovering Moths: Nighttime Jewels in Your Own Backyard. Down East Books, 2002.

Brown Gold: The Gift of Fall Leaves

Posted on October 28, 2013 by barb

By Barb Elliot

The brilliant yellow, orange, and red leaves are turning brown. The beauty of autumn is fleeting and soon all the leaves will be on the ground. This “leaf litter” is not trash. The leaves nourish my garden. They’re home to tiny creatures that are essential to my garden’s ecosystem. These leaves are the gift of fall.

Last year, instead of buying expensive mulch, I mulched with fallen leaves. My trees and shrubs produce leaves abundantly and without charge. Wherever possible, I left them to decompose where they fell. I raked the rest from my lawn into my planting beds. Also, I collected leaves from my neighbors and added them to my garden. The leaves choked out the weeds, retained moisture, reduced erosion, and insulated the roots of my plants against winter cold. A natural fertilizer, they added nutrients to my soil. My plants grew remarkably well this year.

Leaf litter (or duff) offers exceptional benefits. Myriad creatures live in the duff and play key roles in the healthy, diverse ecosystem of my yard. Countless microorganisms and tiny invertebrates break down the leaves into basic elements that enrich the soil. Bacteria and fungi accomplish the bulk of decomposition. Invertebrates such as snails, slugs, and earthworms assist in the process and contribute to the web of life in the leaves and soil.

American Toads eat invertebrates in leaf mulch. Photo by Jarek Tuszynski. Wikimedia Creative Commons.

American Toads eat invertebrates in leaf mulch. Jarek Tuszynski photo, Wikimedia Creative Commons. Click to enlarge.

Many, many arthropods — creatures with exoskeletons and jointed legs — such as sowbugs, spiders, daddy longlegs, millipedes, centipedes, protruans, and double-tails play an important role, too. Spring-tails and mites, the most numerous, are so small they are rarely observed by gardeners. Many beneficial insects such as crickets, beetles, flies, bees, wasps, and ants also live in the duff. All of these creatures are food for other invertebrates or larger animals such as salamanders, toads, and mice. These in turn are eaten by birds, snakes, or larger mammals. The large and small animals associated with the leaf layer form a natural predator-prey balance in the ecosystem.

We butterfly-lovers (and fellow moth-lovers, too) know the leaf layer shelters these winged beauties in their various life stages. Numerous butterfly and moth species

Red-banded Hairstreak on Mountain Mint in Barb's yard. Photo © Barb Elliot.

overwinter in the leaf litter as eggs, larvae (caterpillars), pupae (chrysalides or cocoons) or adults. For instance, the lovely Red-banded Hairstreak, which has visited my yard, lays its eggs on the underside of fallen sumac or oak leaves. When the eggs hatch, the caterpillars eat the leaves and then overwinter in the leaf layer as late-stage caterpillars or chrysalides. Tawny Emperor butterfly caterpillars wrap themselves in a curled leaf and overwinter as caterpillars.

Woolly Bear caterpillar in Barb's leaf mulch. October, 2013. Photo © Barb Elliot.

Isabella Tiger Moth - the adult form of a Woolly Bear. Photo by Steve Jurvetson. Wikipedia Creative Commons.

Isabella Tiger Moth – adult form of a Woolly Bear. Steve Jurvetson photo, Wikipedia Creative Commons.

Fuzzy Woolly Bear caterpillars are now searching for good spots under the leaf layer where they will hibernate for the winter. In spring, each will spin a cocoon and emerge as an Isabella Tiger Moth.

The Luna Moth, one of our largest and most beautiful moths, overwinters as a cocoon in the dead leaves. Unfortunately, when we treat our leaves as trash, we are also throwing out the butterflies and moths that will grace our yards next spring and summer.

Cocoons of the Luna Moth are found in leaf mulch. Photo © Adrian Binns.

Leaf litter benefits birds, too. In my yard I see ground-feeding Eastern Towhees, Gray Catbirds, Northern Flickers, and sparrows picking through the leaves. They find insects and other invertebrates to feed themselves and their protein-hungry nestlings. One spring, a migrating Brown Thrasher, a species I don’t see very often, foraged in the

Brown Thrashers find food in leaf mulch. Photo courtesy of and © Howard Eskin.

leaves of my flower bed. Birds that nest in my yard search the leaf layer for nesting materials such as leaf stems, twigs, and moss.

In our society, we are expected to be yard “neatniks”. We conscientiously rake or blow leaves into piles and then stuff them into bags. Picked up at the curb, the leaves end up in a landfill or a huge “leaf compost” pile that smothers beneficial creatures. Personally, I choose to keep all my own leaves and add those discarded by neighbors so they can decompose naturally in my yard. Maybe you, too, will rescue leaves from neighbors. If you want to start small, rake some leaves into a back corner of your yard. Although shredding leaves speeds up decomposition, I refrain for fear I’ll destroy the insects and other animals living there.

I’m making a vow. I will never again throw out next year’s butterflies and moths or the other animals that live in my leaf litter. Dead leaves are a gift to biodiversity and the web of life. Leaf mulch is brown gold. I’m joining the new movement* to make fallen leaves socially acceptable as garden mulch. I’m in! Are you?

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Resources

*Borge, Mary Anne. “Red-banded Hairstreaks, Sumacs and Leaf Mulch”. Butterfly Gardener, Volume 18, Issue 3, Fall 2013, 9-11.

Bodin, Madeline. “Every Litter Bit Helps”. National Wildlife, October 1, 2005. https://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/National-Wildlife/Gardening/Archives/2005/Tree-Leaves-for-Backyard-Wildlife.aspx

Johnson, Elizabeth and Catley, Kefyn. Life in the Leaf Litter. American Museum of Natural History, Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, 2002.

Sutton, Pat. A Love of Untidy Gardens and Why! Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens. 2011. http://nativeplantwildlifegarden.com/untidy-wildlife-gardens/

backyardsfornature.org

Tag Archives: Luna Moth

Prime Plants for Nature: Backyards for Nature 2016 Native Plant Awards

Sources of Native Plants

Native Plant Sales

National Moth Week: Why? What Good are Moths?

Brown Gold: The Gift of Fall Leaves