Posts Tagged: milkweed
A Bee-Line Toward the Tropical Milkweed
Honey bees just can't get enough of our tropical milkweed, Asclepias curassavica. We...
A honey bee forages on tropical milkweed, Asclepias curassavica, in a Vacaville pollinator garden on July 27. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A honey bee makes a beeline for the tropical milkweed,Asclepias curassavica. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey bee nectaring on the tropical milkweed. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Up, up and away toward the next tropical milkweed blossom. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Honey bee takes flight, returning to her colony. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Milkweed: A Honey Bee's Floral Trap
It is not a "pretty sight," as Ernest Hemingway might have said, to see a honey bee stuck like...
A honey bee stuck in milkweed pollinia. This plant is the narrowleaf milkweed,Asclepias fascicularis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A honey bee struggles to free herself from the sticky nectar trough of a milkweed plant, Asclepias fascicularis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Almost free! A honey bee works to free herself from the sticky nectar trough of a milkweed plant, Asclepias fascicularis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Death trap: This bee couldn't free herself from the sticky milkweed blossom of a Asclepias fascicularis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Monarch Is Like a Stained Glass Window
Ever seen a back-lit monarch butterfly? It's like a stained-glass window in a...
A monarch butterfly, looking like a stained glass window, rises from a tropical milkweed, Asclepias curassavica, on Aug. 7 in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Up, up and away. The monarch rises from a tropical milkweed, Asclepias curassavica, on Aug. 7 in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Monarch Paradise in July
Monarchs, bless their little hearts, souls and wings, deposited 16 eggs on our milkweed plants in...
A monarch caterpillar molting. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A monarch caterpillar j'ing; soon it will be a chrysalis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
From left, a chrysalis about to release a monarch; an empty chrysalis or empty pupal exoskeleton, exuvia; a chrysalis; and an newly eclosed adult monarch. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A newly eclosed female monarch on a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A female monarch nectaring on a tropical milkweed. This milkweed yielded five caterpillars. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Pollinia: Like Having Gum on Your Shoes
If you've ever stepped in sticky gum, it's similar to what happens when an insect steps into...
This wasp, a species of Podalonia, flies off a tropical milkweed at the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden with a load of pollinia, a packet of sticky golden pollen grains. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Podalonia wasp nectars on tropical milkweed at the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A wasp foraging upside down on tropical milkweed at the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Off to another tropical milkweed--and off packing pollinia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Note the gold, wishboned-shaped pollinia on the honey bee's feet as she heads for more showy milkweed. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)