Cross-vine flowers in the backyard!

 

As always, click the photo to enlarge

A wooden post on the pergola on my backyard patio is enwrapped with Cross-vine (Bignonia capreolata), a high-climbing vine in the largely tropical Bignoniaceae Family. The only other member of the family that makes it as far north as Ohio is the far more common and widespread Trumpet-creeper (Campsis radicans). It grows copiously on two other posts of this pergola. But the Cross-vine barely enters Ohio from the south. In large part it only occurs in the tier of counties that buffer the Ohio River, and most plants that I have seen are in sight of the big river, with the hills of either Kentucky or West Virginia on the other side, depending on where you are.

A few years ago, I asked John Howard if he might get me a few cuttings of Cross-vine. John lives in Adams County, in the heart of Cross-vine country in Ohio. Sure enough, John came through as he always does, and soon after receiving the material I stuck the cuttings in the ground. Nothing much showed last year, but this year the vine began its ascent of the pergola post - exactly what I was hoping it would do - and now it has reached the top of the pergola.

A few days ago, I noticed buds on the Cross-vine, down low, near the ground. Today, two of them popped open, with a third flower soon to follow. You can see them in the preceding image, near the base of the post on its right side.

This flowering time is strange, as Cross-vine normally blooms in spring: April and May. Perhaps part of the plant got accidentally clipped or damaged, and that spurred the flowers. Whatever the case, I am hopeful that this vine will continue to flourish and start flowering in spring, as it should.

The colorful tubular flowers of Cross-vine are pollinated by Ruby-throated Hummingbirds and are irresistible to the elfin birds. The much more copious Trumpeter-creeper on my pergola is heavily bedecked with flowers, and hummingbirds make constant visits.  I recently posted about that, RIGHT HERE.

I can think of no better use for this pergola than as a framework for interesting vines. It is well-built and fairly large, and up until this year, had a loose fabric covering over the top. I removed that as my Trumpet-creeper vines flourished and reached the top latticework of the pergola. I want it to eventually become a living roof, and now it looks like I might have Cross-vine as part of that green roof.

Bumblebee buzz-pollinating Wild Senna

 

Bee sure to turn your volume up!

A short video of bumblebees buzz-pollinating my Wild Senna (Senna hebecarpa) this morning. Buzz pollination, or sonification, is essential for the extraction of pollen in certain groups of plants, including some pea family members like the senna, blueberries, potatoes and tomatoes. In buzz pollinated plants, the pollen is held tightly in specially shaped anthers. Slits in the anther are not large enough for pollen-seeking insects to access and thus access the reward within. However, vibration at a certain frequency releases the pollen through those same pores. The bumblebee takes some of the nutrient-rich pollen to eat. Other harvested pollen is made into a rich paste to feed the larvae within their nests. Along the way, the uber-fuzzy insects deposit pollen on the reproductive parts of other senna plants. Worthington, Ohio.

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds and Trumpet-creeper

 

My large mass of Trumpet-creeper (Campsis radicans) in my backyard. It is an irresistible magnet for hummers.

I was able to work with the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds that constantly visit my snarled lianas of Trumpet-creeper (Campsis radicans) today. I put an iPhone photo of that floriferous mass here, along with two images of the hummingbirds (at least two visit routinely). A nectaring bird will often sit on the flower lip and plunge its body deep into the corolla tube.

The hummers also perch on the flowers and flycatch from them. Trumpet-creeper is heavily beset with extrafloral nectaries that produce sugary secretions, and these lure an abundance of ants, and other small insects such as bees and wasps. Thus, the plant not only provides an abundance of regular flower nectar for the hummers, it also provides ample protein in the form of small insects.

I know some people shy away from this tropical-looking species (most of the plants in the Bignoniaceae family ARE tropical) because it can be unruly, but any hummingbird enthusiasts would do well to plant some Trumpet-creeper.

Moths/all things nocturnal night: Clear Creek Metro Park, next Saturday evening, August 23.

Moth/Caterpillar/Everything Nocturnal prowl: Next Saturday night, August 23, in the heart of Clear Creek Metro Park in Hocking County. This will be a fun, productive nocturnal foray. Chelsea Gottfried, coauthor of the new book Gardening for Moths, kicks things off with a lushly illustrated PowerPoint presentation on moths, followed by mothing at various light stations. Jim McCormac and Clear Creek naturalist Katie Bennett, along with Chelsea, will help in searching for interesting creatures of the night and we should see many. This has been an amazing year for caterpillars, and we'll be seeking those with blacklight flashlights.

The fun starts at 7:30 pm, and all of the details are RIGHT HERE.

The following images were made last Saturday night (8/16) at a nocturnal event at the amazing Scioto Gardens native plant nursery in Delaware County. The diversity of critters there was incredible, and I'll hope to write more about that experience later. This offers a wee sampling of the sorts of creatures that we'll find at the Clear Creek event this Saturday.

Carolina Sphinx (Manduca sexta)

Spicebush Swallowtail caterpillar (Papilio troilus)

Gray Furcula caterpillar (Furcula cinerea)

White-banded Crab Spider (Misumenoides formosipes)

Waning Gibbous Moon

 

The moon, in its first day of its waning gibbous phase. As always, click the photo to enlarge.

August 9th (2025) marked the most recent full moon. It was spectacular, and clear skies showed it nicely. I remarked to Shauna that we should attempt to create images of it the following night. In preparation, I did a bit of searching for moon photography articles and learned something new. Apparently it is better to shoot the moon either the day prior to the full moon (waxing gibbous phase) or the day after, when these shots were made. Increased shadowing around the moon's edge better highlights craters and other features of the lunar landscape. You'll see that, especially if you click on an image to enlarge it. When the moon is completely full, it will look largely white and featureless - something I have noticed from past full moon shoots.

A tighter shot of the moon in all its glory. Around here, we're just as likely to have cloudy skies during interesting celestial phenomena, if not more likely. But two totally clear skies in a row made for great moon watching, and photography.

To make these shots, I used my Canon R5 (I still have my trusty 5D IV but haven't touched it since I went mirrorless), and the Canon 800mm f/5.6 lens. That rig weighs a LOT, so needless to say it was mounted to my Gitzo tripod/Wemberley head. My settings were f/16, ISO 4000, at 1/125 second exposure. You don't want to go much if any slower than that shutter speed, as the moon is moving and with too slow a shutter speed it won't be tack sharp.

To prevent any motion blur on my end, I used the camera's 2-second delay feature so that there would not be even the slightest motion caused by me pressing the shutter. I could have used the 10-second delay, but that would have been overkill. Likewise, I could have plugged in a remote shutter release cord, but the timer is easier and the end result is the same. I found that underexposing one-third of a stop retained more of the moon's orangish cast, and I did very little to these images in post-processing other than crop.

Finally, to better zoom in on an object that is nearly 239,000 miles away, I resorted to my rarely used Canon 2x extender. That makes the lens 1600mm millimeters. When shooting relatively stable objects like this, where one can use all the tactics to prevent motion blur as described above, the 2x works well. While I use the 1.4x extender all of the time, the 2x isn't nearly as user-friendly for active wildlife of the sort that I often shoot. But for celestial objects, it works great.

A wide-ranging discussion on the Backyard Ecology podcast

Back on July 16, I was interviewed for the wonderful Backyard Ecology podcast by host Shannon Trimboli. She and her husband Anthony started the podcast several years ago and have interviewed a wide range of experts on various subjects.

The primary topic of discussion for my appearance was moths, based on the book Gardening for Moths, authored by Chelsea Gottfried and myself and released in 2023. But we ranged far and wide, in addition to making the case why moths are so vital. If you would like to check it out, CLICK HERE.

Primrose Moth

 

A Common Evening-primrose (Oenothera biennis) in full bloom. The common - some might say "weedy" - native plant is incredibly showy and comes with the added allure of playing host for one of our coolest moths.

I've written about the Primrose Moth (Schinia florida) before, but it's been a while. As it's always a red-letter day when one finds this moth, which I recently did, I must share the experience here.

Probably all species of our native flora play host to caterpillars, the overwhelming majority of which are moth larvae. To take Ohio as a point of reference, about 170 species of butterflies have been recorded. And that includes great rarities and one-off records of vagrants. But there are many thousands of moth species. No one knows exactly how many, indeed, probably no one even has a good handle on how many moth species there might be in the state. One of Ohio's premier moth experts, Diana Platco Brooks, has identified nearly 1,500 species on her 12.5-acre property in southeastern Ohio over the last 15 years or so. Such butterfly to moth ratios probably applies nearly everywhere in eastern North America.

While some moths are generalists, their caterpillars consuming a wide variety of plant species (polyphagous), the great majority tilt towards specialization. The latter might consume members of one family of plants, one genus, or even one species. The caterpillar in the image above is the larva of this post's protagonist, the Primrose Moth. Insofar as I know, it feeds only on primrose in the genus Oenothera, and I have only seen it on Common Evening-primrose (Oenothera biennis).

I was down in Cullowhee, North Carolina recently to attend the amazing Cullowhee Native Plant Conference. It has been going on for about four decades and attracts something like 500 attendees. If you get the opportunity to go, do it. As a bonus, some of the richest biological diversity in eastern North America surrounds the conference site. Insofar as I can ascertain, North Carolina, with its nearly 4,000 native plant species, hosts greater botanical diversity than any state east of the Mississippi River. And all that plant diversity means enormous animal diversity, not the least of which are moths.

Ah! The pink and yellow end of some magical creature protrudes from the closing flower of a primrose. 

In my plenary talk at the Cullowhee conference, which was on moths (based loosely on THIS BOOK), I had worked in the Primrose Moth for the first time in this presentation (which I have given scores of times). So maybe, courtesy of the moth gods, this was karmic payback for plugging the little gem.

There was no way that I was going to enter such a floriferous land and not do some heavy botanizing, and Shauna and I spent two hardcore days exploring the mountains near Cullowhee. At one point, near an overlook along the Blue Ridge Parkway, I noticed a large stand of Common Evening-primrose. Dozens of plants, and the flowers still mostly open as it was mid-morning. So off I set, carefully searching the dozens of plants for the moth above. Finally, with only a few plants left to inspect, Bingo!

We carefully held back a petal to better expose the stunning little moth. After the photo session, we pushed the petal back into place. This was only the third or fourth time that I've found the Primrose Moth, and trust me, I've looked at scads of flowers.

So, if you find yourself around a flowering stand of Common Evening-primrose, and time permits, take a look around and you might be rewarded with one of our most magical moths.