Oh my goodness, there are beetles, bees and moths that visit the open flowers of Calylophus harwegii from late afternoon and through the night. Some of the wing spans that loomed in my headlights as we drove down Dragoon Road were quite large and I’m guessing those were hawk moths, but what species? I’m going to plant some more Calylophus around out little homestead and observe the evening visitors. Research!
Hartweg’s sundrops (Calylophus hartwegii) is also a commercial landscape plant, and you’ll see it in highway medians, in the right of way or in front of office buildings. I guess you could say it’s a successful native plant. Harumph! Having flowers open for cool native pollinators, now that’s successful. I suggest a visit to where you’ll find it in habitat. Some grassy plains or rocky slopes above 3,500 ft. in the borderlands should do the trick. Hey, you could drive over to Dragoon! Then it’s guaranteed.
If I want to grow sundrops, and of course I do, cuts will work, but I think I’m going to gather and plant seed and you’ll find me in the greenhouse singing:
Germinating rhythms, little cotyledons,
Tiny rooting radicles, on plants that I’ve been seeding.
Lycium species are found around the world (look up goji berry). Lycium pallidum is the most widespread species in the southwest, found throughout Arizona,...
Mala Mujer or Cnidoscolus angustidens is an interesting plant in Euphorbiaceae, the spurge family. It’s found in southeastern Arizona and south into Sonora on...
There are a dozen species of Melampodium and I wonder which one Linnaeus was looking at when he honored Melampus with the genus name....
