northeast-flora-and-fauna

Here's some Carolina Horsenettle from last autumn. I'm a little surprised I haven't shown Carolina Horsenettle before. It's not an all-over-the-place plant, but with its small, tomato-like fruit it's fairly eye-catching. The fruit of this plant is a fairly close relative to the tomato; they're in the same genus . But they're also in the nightshade family of plants. This family of plants contains many familiar food plants, including tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, and some peppers. But other plants in this family are very poisonous, and unfortunately for would-be wildlife foragers, the Carolina Horsenettle is one of the poisonous plants. The fruits in particular are perhaps the most poisonous part of the plant, though all parts of it are somewhat poisonous, at least to us and livestock. Apparently though some wild birds like turkey and quail can eat the fruit . What this plant is not is a nettle . It probably got the "nettle" part of it's name...

I met this Red Admiral butterfly at Duke Farms about a month ago. This is a little early for these butterflies who are more numerous later in the year. These guys migrate south to avoid our winters; it's likely that this guy was born down south and fluttered up to New Jersey as the weather warmed. The males stake out a territory and then fiercely defend it from other males. Of course, since they can't bite, scratch, or sting, fiercely defending a territory mostly consists of fluttering into their opponent as violently as possible. (My impression is that all females are welcome in their territory.) As caterpillars they're not picky eaters, eating most (all?) plants in the nettle family plus a smattering of other plants. This is probably why they live across North America, Eurasia, and North Africa, making it a fairly widespread species. May 4, 2021 at Duke Farms Photo 128324505, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's a Red Admiral Butterfly we spotted at the 2020 Duke Farms butterfly count. This is a very widespread species of butterfly, living in much of North and South America, Europe, Asia, and some of Africa. Though the British consider them to be large butterflies, I'd put them in more of a medium category. Like most butterflies/moths, they can only be as widespread as their host plant(s), and the Red Admiral uses most plants in the nettle family . In my area, a common (though not entirely popular) nettle is the Stinging Nettle , and a lot of times you'll see them in the vicinity of this skin-irritating plant. This is a butterfly that might land on you. They don't bite, but the salts in your sweat is an important nutrient for these butterflies. Consider letting them drink; you weren't using that sweat anymore anyway. July 25 at Duke Farms