Desert Rains Bring Eruption of Painted Ladies to Southern California

            Vanessa cardui, Painted Ladies Butterfly,
                  photo credit: www.laspilitas.com

The other day while I was sitting at a bus stop, I observed a number of tiny shadows flying toward me. I looked up to see butterflies, a whole flock of them!  They were small, almost moth-like.  Later walking to a friend's house, I observed more of these little butterflies, flying up her driveway and then up over the house, heading north.  What the heck was going on?

All over the Southland people have been observing these small orange creatures flying hard in gusty winds. Where did they come from, and where are they headed?  Some people thought they are monarchs migrating north from Mexico.  But, no, monarchs are much bigger. Then I read about the explosion of Painted Lady butterflies! 

Researchers have advised that the Painted Lady butterflies (Vanessa cardui) overwinter in deserts, such as the Mojave and Colorado deserts, before embarking on their annual migration to the Pacific Northwest. The profusion of butterflies happening right now coincides with the super blooms in the desert following all the rainfall we just had. In a normal year, for example, Anza Borego desert gets 3 inches of rain per year. but this year they got 3 inches just over Valentine's Day!  

In the past six drought years California has seen a huge decline in butterflies in general. Probably the most watched are the western Monarchs. Painted Ladies are not in such dire straights as the Monarchs. One of the advantages they have over the Monarchs is that they can eat the nectar of a wide number of plants, so they do not have to search for Milkweed. The usual nectar sources visited by Painted Ladies are nettles, mallows and borages, but they can also enjoy lupine, sunflowers and poppies if rains make them available. They can also ingest a large number of plant toxins. 

Painted Ladies can fly at speeds of up to 25mph. They can travel a distance of 2500 miles. They use the abdominal fat they stored as caterpillars to fuel their flight. Their small 2-3 inch size leaves them largely unnoticed during normal years. It is this year's eruption that have brought them front and center to the attention of Angelenos. 

There is something magical about the flight of the Painted Ladies, en masse during this year's migration. In the urban environment we are thirsty for nature. And these orange winged beauties remind us that all around us, no matter where we are, we can find nature.  And nature never fails to be amazing. 

https://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-butterflies-desert-explosion-20190312-story.html

#rainfall #pollinators #butterflies #SoCal

Lovely Manzanita

Arctostaphylos, Baby Bear Manzanita Bush,
Photo Credit: Las Pilitas Nursery, Santa Margarita, California

The lovely Manzanita (Arctostaphylos species) with its delicate pink urn-shaped flowers in spring hardly seems like a tough, fire-resistant plant. But in fact this small tree is a survivor. If a wildfire were to come through your garden or the hillsides behind your house, you would be glad Manzanita was planted there.

Manzanita has a deep crimson bark that is very dense, strong and heavy.  In a fire, the wood would be slow to burn, but burn it would. Still, the plant would not burn to the ground; instead, a basal stump would remain for new growth to branch out in the next rains.

Manzanita is a California plant, native to chaparral and soft-scrub ecosystemsm of areas such as the coastal Santa Monica Mtns.  There are many varieties of Manzanita, and they can be found growing wild from San Diego north to Carmel.

Not all Manzanitas are as equal, when it comes to fire resistance. Small bushes, in general, are best. One of the recommended Manzanitas for fire resistance is this one: Arctostaphylos Baby Bear Manzanita Bush. Baby Bear grows to about 6ft tall and 6ft wide. It is drought-tolerant in Coastal California.

Anna's Hummingbird on Arctostaphylos, Baby Bear Manzanita Bush
Photo Credit: Las Pilitas Nursery, Santa Margarita, California

Manzanita is a favorite of pollinators, attracting hummingbirds, butterflies, moths and bees with its spring blooms. Plant Manzanita in a bird garden, and let the birds enjoy the fruit.

Manzanita can fit into any size garden. Each plant has its own unique shape, making it a work of art in the garden. Manzanita come in many shapes and sizes, from trees and bushes to groundcovers! They make graceful specimen plants or can be pruned into hedges.

For myself, I love walking through the fog and seeing Manzanita sentinels standing out along the pathways~  May they always grace the coast of California.

You can read more of this Series, starting with: Gardening in the Line of Fire
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Gardening In the Line of Fire

Manzanita's spring blossoms, of the Genus Arctostaphylos

December 4, 2017: California seems to be on fire.  Everywhere. It started last week when Santa Ana winds stirred up a wildfire in Ventura, California, just to the north of Los Angeles County. I was on my way up to Santa Monica to take care of some business at the courthouse there.  Everyone was talking about the fires. It was a warm, dry day, more like summertime than Christmastime. The sky was hazy and girls passed by with masks over their faces, so as not to breathe in too much ash and particulates. The golden sun took on a new color. It was just the beginning of what would become the week ahead.

My car radio was alive with chatter about how this was not the fire season: It is too late in the year and fires are supposed to be over.  "Newbies" to Los Angeles had to call into the radio station to put in their "two cents," annoying me with how they know all about living in LA.  "This is what it's like living in LA: you never know when there might be a fire and we are always living with this danger..." much like folks back East live with tornadoes or hurricanes or ice storms. I suppose that's what they meant. I wanted to call in and say, "No. This NOT normal for Los Angeles."

For one thing, we are in our 6th year of drought. Nothing is normal now. The trees are stressed. Aluminum has been sprayed on us day in and day out for weather modification... Ah, but that is a subject for another post.

As the car radio droned on, I started thinking about the backyard gardeners in Southern California. We all spend much time and money planning our landscapes: shopping for the right plants, learning where to place them, and how to care for them.  Then, should a fire appear out of nowhere and strike our neighborhood, causing evacuations, we have to leave our gardens behind. When we leave our houses, we leave our gardens, too.  And we don't know what we will come back to.

What a terrible feeling that is!  Even if the insurance companies reimburse you for your house, how do you replace the garden?  All that love and careful nurturing of your plants: they are like friends that cannot be replaced. The only choice is to start over. You assess the damages, decide what to keep and what cannot be saved, and you move on.  And that takes time and money.

So, now we come to why I am writing this blog post. There are things you CAN do to mitigate the destructive effects of wildfires on your garden and make the new garden stronger.  With a little bit of  research, you can make your new garden even more fire resistant!  I suggest you start with taking a look at which plants you choose to put in.

In Southern California there are native plants that are fire resistant and plants that are fire tolerant. There are a good many varieties of plants to choose from. You do not have to go with strickly a "cactus and succulent" garden if you don't want to.  I want to introduce you to some of the native plants I know of that would work well in your new garden.  Like the lovely Manzanita~ If you had a garden full of Manzanita, they would survive fires. Yes, they still burn, but they do not die. Instead, they grow back from a basal stump and eventually return to their enchanting pre-fire forms, producing sweet pink blossoms in spring that pollinators so enjoy.

After a fire, your garden will be void of much brush; it may look like a whole new palette to paint on. So rather than fill it with more plants that would be destroyed if wildfires should come again, consider using native plants that stand up to fire, plants that will be with you for a lifetime. It will make coming home after an evacuation that much less stressful. Your favorite plants might be charred and blackened. They might be smaller versions of their former selves. But they will continue to grow. And the wildlife that called them home will return, too. They will put out seeds that native birds rely on. The ecosystem will continue to thrive, and your garden will be reborn!

Remember, plant fire resiliant and fire tolerant native plants.  Look them up. Research your options.  I will post some great native choices in upcoming blog posts for you.  Because, I am a Southern California gardener, too.  I have lived in the chaparral & soft-scrub areas of the Santa Monica Mountains for most of my adult life. And I have seen what wildfires can do. I am no "newbie" to this place. And I am here to tell you, you can be strong. You can create a better and stronger garden that will last you a lifetime~ 

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