Fall gets me excited and fall color is a crazy combination of blooming plants and plants with leaves changing color as they prepare to go dormant. Crazy fall!
Mountain oxeye (Heliopsis parviflora) is a real borderlands species, found from 4,000 to 8,000 feet in the mountains along the Arizona, New Mexico, Texas border and southward into Mexico.
I learned that the red bordered satyr (Gyrocheilus patrobas) flies from mid August to November and can be found in the mountains of southeastern Arizona. I had a couple friends who also noticed large groups of them flying and puddling along creeks in the Chiricahua Mountains. I think it is so cool that the host plant for this beautiful butterfly is bull grass (Muhlenbergia emersleyi), a favorite bunch grass of mine that has tall purplish seed head plumes. Another good reason to head for this hills this fall; mountain oxeye and red bordered satyrs await you. Oh my!
The photos of mountain oxeye are mine. The red bordered satyr on Ageratina is courtesy of my friend Taylor Anne. Thank you Taylor.
Petey will never be a learned fellow, but he’s a pretty nice fella. Tufted evening primrose (Oenothera caespitosa) is beautiful wildflower of the uplands. ...
Petey rambles on and on and even recites a poem! I suspect that to many nursery folks propagating the plants they will grow is...
Petey talks about some unintentional seed collecting and also of a favorite native grass called giant sacaton whose seed he didn’t get to in...