Author Archives: beveritt

Pipevine Swallowtail Butterflies

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Dutchman's Pipe - Aristolochia californica

Dutchman’s Pipe – Aristolochia tomentosa

This is Pipevine.  Specifically, Dutchman’s Pipe, Aristolochia tomentosa.  It’s been planted close to our deck and by this time of year has successfully made its way into any nearby support structure it can find, such as our holly.  Looks like Kudzu in the picture.

Why would you you want one of these plants?  Because Pipevine is the only host plant for the beautiful Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly.  Females lay clusters of one to twenty reddish-brown eggs on the underside of this plant.  In Georgia, there may be as many as three broods each season.

As the eggs hatch, the caterpillars will eat the Pipevine leaves and stems. That’s right, we planted this vine hoping it would be eaten.  The progression looks like this:

Pipevine caterpillars and butterflies are toxic because they retain poison from their host plant.  Take a close look at the caterpillar below with his bright orange spots.  Those spots are a clear warning sign to birds.

Pipevine Swallowtail Larva-4

These magnificent butterflies are the result:

Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly

Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly feeding on native phlox – their favorite nectar plant in our garden

Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly

The upper surface of the hind wings are gorgeous iridescent blue or blue-green with pale markings. Males have brighter and larger metallic regions than females.  The underside of the hind wing has seven orange spots surrounded by iridescent blue.  Pipevine Swallowtails can have a wingspan to up to five inches and we love having these beautiful creatures in our garden.

Even More Hummer Activity Now

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Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Ruby-throated Hummingbird on Phlox

In our April 23 blog we talked about the first of the season hummingbirds.  Then it seemed as if hummingbird activity dwindled with not many sightings until about a week or so ago. We wondered why.

Fortunately someone posed exactly this question about the drop in hummingbird activity in June followed be a late July spike on GABO, the forum for Georgia Birders Online.  The answers were great and helped us understand.  We thought you might like to know too.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Ruby-throated Hummingbird perched on fig limb

During the early spring the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds return from their southern overwintering locations.  They come in pairs, both males and females.  But beginning in June, you don’t see many females – they are nesting.  Another reason that you are less likely to see females at feeders and flowers, as suggested by one of the GABO contributors, is because the females are in search of protein to feed their young.  The hummer perched on the fig limb has her tongue out and we speculate that it maybe to round up ants.

Then, at the end of June and into July the relative dearth of hummers is replaced with an abundance as the newly fledged birds begin joining their parents in search of food.