[Pollinator] San Francisco Chronicle: 'Butterflies and Blooms' at Conservatory of Flowers

[Jennifer Tsang]

http://www.sfchronicle.com/homeandgarden/article/Butterflies-and-Blooms-at-C
onservatory-of-4535368.php


'Butterflies and Blooms' at Conservatory of Flowers




Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle

Docent Drew Risner-Davis tries to catch a butterfly on a stick on opening
day of the S.F. Conservatory of Flowers exhibit.

Joe Eaton and Ron Sullivan

May 22, 2013

If you've never met our official state insect (and few have - it's an
elusive creature), now's your chance. California dogface butterflies, so
called because males have a poodle-head profile on their forewings, are on
display at the "Butterflies & Blooms" exhibit through Oct. 20 at the
Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park.

In a cottage-garden setting, visitors can mingle with dogfaces and other
local butterflies (monarchs, pipevine swallowtails, buckeyes, mourning
cloaks) and exotics from North America's subtropical fringe (white peacocks,
Julia and zebra longwings). Giant silk moths will join the mix later.

Raised in Southern California and Florida, the insects are shipped here in
their pupal stage, under strict federal regulations. All told, 50 species
will rotate through, a new batch arriving every week. Plants for the exhibit
came from the Golden Gate Park nursery - but don't include any food species
for potential caterpillars.

"We're practicing butterfly birth control here," curator Lau Hodges
explained. A gazebo and other structures provide safe havens for the
insects, and a mesh canopy overhead keeps them from flying up into the
skylight.

"Butterflies are the goodwill ambassadors of the pollinator world," said
conservatory spokeswoman Nina Sazevich. "There aren't many pollinators you
can fill a room with."

Although bees are more important for food crops, butterflies service a huge
range of flowering plants.

"Pollination isn't a process that is commonly understood," said Hodges. "If
you asked most people to explain how a flower turns into an apple, they
wouldn't be able to. But life as we know it wouldn't be possible without
pollination - no flowers, no fruit. We want people to know there are some
very important insects and other animals that do the work."

Special events with the nonprofit Pollinator Partnership are planned.


Appearance, scent


A flower's appearance and scent may provide clues to the identity of its
pollinator. Hummingbirds go for red or orange flowers with long nectar
tubes; bats prefer musky-scented, night-blooming white flowers. It's harder
to generalize about butterflies.



Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle

The aptly named buckeye butterfly is one of 50 species that will rotate
through the exhibit, which is ongoing through Oct. 20.

"There is no specific 'butterfly pollination syndrome,' " writes UC Davis
biologist Arthur Shapiro in his Field Guide to Butterflies of the San
Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento Valley Regions. Most adults don't visit
the host plants they ate as caterpillars; pipevine swallowtails ignore
pipevine flowers, which are pollinated by tiny gnats, and Gulf fritillaries
choose buddleia and lantana over passionflowers. The monarch, which is
attracted to milkweed flowers, is a rare exception.

Other sources say butterflies have weak preferences for flower color,
varying from species to species. Whites, sulphurs, checkerspots and
hairstreaks like yellow or white flowers; some swallowtails opt for blue.
Many, though, visit dozens or hundreds of flower species across the color
spectrum. Butterflies see into the ultraviolet and may respond to guide
marks on petals that humans can't see.

Scent appears less important. Nectar-rich flowers like the native buckeye
and the exotic buddleia draw multiple species. Capable of learning,
butterflies seldom revisit nectarless flowers. Zebra and Julia longwings are
specialized pollen eaters.


Don't forget moths


Let's give the moths their due: They evolved earlier than butterflies and
are much more numerous and diverse. Some, particularly day-flying species,
also pollinate, but not the silk moths - luna, cecropia, polyphemus - that
will be on display. These, as adults, have no functional mouthparts. They
ate their last meals before pupating; as adults, their only goal is finding
a mate.

Like other "advanced" insects - beetles, flies, bees - butterflies and moths
transform from a wormlike larva to an immobile pupa to the familiar adult,
or imago. Complex metamorphosis is a mind-boggling phenomenon. After the
larva's body liquefies, special clusters of cells called imaginal discs
build the future adult within the chrysalis. Hormones coordinate the process
by switching hundreds of genes on and off. And you thought human adolescence
was bad!

The payoff is the moment of eclosion, when the butterfly struggles out of
its chrysalis. During our preview visit, great southern whites were emerging
like slow-motion popcorn. Resembling crumpled tissue paper at first, they
morphed into recognizable butterflies as their wings dried and expanded.
Neighboring chrysalids twitched, as if in anticipation. A few buckeyes,
mourning cloaks and dogfaces were already out. On her daily rounds, Hodges
checks the Butterfly Bungalow and releases the butterflies that are ready
for action.



Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle

Volunteer Colette Marsh (right) helps visitors identify different species of
butterfly in the Butterfly Bungalow at the exhibit at the Conservatory of
Flowers.

"Little kids will go nuts over this exhibit," promised Hodges. We suspect
they won't be the only ones.


Butterflies & Blooms


10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday. Through Oct. 20. $7 adults, $5 youths
12-17, seniors 65 and over, and college students with ID; $2 children 5-11.
Free for children 4 and under. Conservatory of Flowers, 100 John F. Kennedy
Drive, Golden Gate Park.  <http://www.conservatoryofflowers.org>
www.conservatoryofflowers.org.

Pollinator Partnership,  <http://www.pollinator.org> www.pollinator.org.

Joe Eaton and Ron Sullivan are Berkeley freelancers and naturalists. E-mail:
home at sfchronicle.com


Read more:
<http://www.sfgate.com/homeandgarden/article/Butterflies-and-Blooms-at-Conse
rvatory-of-4535368.php#ixzz2U8lf2RTN>
http://www.sfgate.com/homeandgarden/article/Butterflies-and-Blooms-at-Conser
vatory-of-4535368.php#ixzz2U8lf2RTN

 

 

Jennifer Tsang

Marketing Director

Pollinator Partnership

www.pollinator.org 

423 Washington St. 5th Fl.

San Francisco, CA 94111

T: 415.362.1137

F: 415.362.3070

 <http://pollinator.org/SHARE.htm> 

 

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