Do you still have your fingers crossed for rain over the next couple of days? I do! And this evening I heard the Rain Crow or Yellow-billed Cuckoo talking. Hope its forecast is good. 🙂 Additionally, two Common Nighthawks were squawking overhead. Love them!
In my little container tomato garden, a volunteer Silver-leaf Nightshade (Solanum elaeagnifolium) snuck in. Happily I let it stay. The American Bumble Bees are frequent visitors! And the plant is beautiful to me. 🙂
On another flower of the nightshade, was this black beetle. The bumblebee actually pushed it aside when it lit on the same flower. I find it interesting to see who out rank each other. The bird bath is another place to watch where a critter ranks on the hierarchy ladder.
A spiny lizard on a Post Oak! It did not stick around for any closer photos.
The tunas on this Prickly Pear (Opuntia) are not going to provide much food for anyone. Besides humans, birds and some mammals will eat Prickly Pear. I could not find a source that says if anything eats only the fruit. However, I did find that jackrabbits will eat at the base of the Prickly Pear where there are less spines. In South Texas, Prickly Pear make up 21% of the White-tail deer’s diet. Also Bobwhites uses it as important food and cover plant. (https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/rangelands/article/viewFile/11005/10278) Furthermore, besides a food source, it is great place to hide if a predator is coming for you (meaning critters). The cactus in this photo is a smooth cactus without the spines. So maybe not as much protection eh.
The more you know, the more you see and the more you see, the more you know.
10 Comments
Love spiney lizards. Can barely see one on a tree. And i now have a few bumble bees in my yard. The moth pics are really great and i have sage smudges myself. Interesting article about white sage.
The dog nosed a blister beetle like yours yesterday morning and presumably it did its defense goo because she shook her head after. I took her in then because her interest in friendship is stronger than her self preservation instincts…
I purposely put a nightshade in my flower bed in Carrollton because in the harshest conditions it is blooming and beautiful when everything else is brown. But they have a bad habit of spreading by runners and once it is there you cannot get rid of it. It was a little too rambunctious for a city flower bed. and the thorns were a bit painful when i would be weeding in the beds and I decided I won’t purposely do that again. So I move to a property where they are all over the place, and I’m still pulling them out but with gloves. There are plenty out there on the acreage so they don’t need to be in my garden or beds.
But I agree they are really pretty bloomers.
Kathy, I don’t know about the bad habit of runners because I am not a real gardener. However, the Silver-leaf Nightshade (Solanum elaeagnifolium) does not have bristles like the Western Horse Nettle (Solanum dimidiatum) if that is the one you are referring about. I do know that several species in the Solanum are stickery but so do other nursery plants. (ie roses to name one). Just saying 😉
Love spiney lizards. Can barely see one on a tree. And i now have a few bumble bees in my yard. The moth pics are really great and i have sage smudges myself. Interesting article about white sage.
Yeah, for your bumbles!
The dog nosed a blister beetle like yours yesterday morning and presumably it did its defense goo because she shook her head after. I took her in then because her interest in friendship is stronger than her self preservation instincts…
I am glad Gracie doesn’t usually nose the beetles. At least anymore LOL.
I also think silver-leaf nightshade and horse nettle are beautiful flowers.
Do you know if they are hard to grow? I guess Claire will find out next season 🙂
I doubt it since most folks consider them weeds.
I guess unless they are in a garden nursery center, then they are weeds. gggggrrrrrrrr.
I purposely put a nightshade in my flower bed in Carrollton because in the harshest conditions it is blooming and beautiful when everything else is brown. But they have a bad habit of spreading by runners and once it is there you cannot get rid of it. It was a little too rambunctious for a city flower bed. and the thorns were a bit painful when i would be weeding in the beds and I decided I won’t purposely do that again. So I move to a property where they are all over the place, and I’m still pulling them out but with gloves. There are plenty out there on the acreage so they don’t need to be in my garden or beds.
But I agree they are really pretty bloomers.
Kathy, I don’t know about the bad habit of runners because I am not a real gardener. However, the Silver-leaf Nightshade (Solanum elaeagnifolium) does not have bristles like the Western Horse Nettle (Solanum dimidiatum) if that is the one you are referring about. I do know that several species in the Solanum are stickery but so do other nursery plants. (ie roses to name one). Just saying 😉