Rewilding My Lot

There is Frogfruit (Phyla nodiflora) in the front lawn area, outside of the native flower meadow area. In that location, it’s mixed with Bermudagrass and lies close to the ground.

There are a lot of blooms at the moment (they are short enough to escape the mower), and the quantity and diversity of insect visitors is fascinating. It is not unusual for me to be found just squatting beside the Frogfruit watching all the activity. I see multiple kinds of butterfly, bee, and other insects, usually the smaller varieties.

I wish it were easier to photograph Frogfruit visitors! For instance, in this particular area as I watched, there were at least two butterflies and around twenty bees but you wouldn’t know that from this picture.

Nevertheless, I did manage to capture a few reasonable photographs. Here’s a Western Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) (which is not native, by the way; it’s European):

This is a Common Checkered-Skipper (Burnsius communis):

And this is a Bordered Patch (Chlosyne lacinia) butterfly: