Rewilding My Lot

There are five waterlily plants in the pond: three Banana Waterlily aka Yellow Waterlily (Nymphaea mexicana) and two American White Waterlily (Nymphaea odorata). I have not seen any white waterlily blooms yet, but I do quite often see the yellow. Usually there is only one bloom at a time, which appears for a few days. During that time, the flower is only open in the afternoons.

Recently I saw three waterlily blooms at the same time, with a fourth bud that looks almost ready to open. So that was an excuse to take a few photographs on a sunny afternoon.

Leaves of the waterlily plants serve a few purposes as well. They provide shade, which may be appreciated by the fish, and which may reduce the growth of algae (there is effectively no shade for the pond from surrounding plants or structures). They can also be drinking platforms for lightweight insects like this wasp.

In the water there are snails that just appeared this year. I think they are in the Genus Planorbella. They seem to be eating algae and detritus, so that helps with the ecosystem balance.

There is also a self-sufficient population of Western Mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis). I’ve never fed them — they are apparently surviving well on insect larvae and detritus. There are many more fish than I originally bought, so they are breeding successfully. In the photo below there is a fish on the left and a snail on the right.

There’s also a fish at the bottom of this photo.

After dark in spring, it is not uncommon to witness a collection of noisy Gulf Coast Toads (Incilius valliceps). The most I have counted at one time is ten (last year there were fewer). Here’s a video I took a couple of nights ago of activities in and around the water.