Bring on the butterflies
A heart-shaped discovery in the garden
Mōrena e hoa; good morning my friend.
How has your week been? It has definitely felt like winter with our first real frost this week, and cold mornings that make me want to stay in bed all day!
But in true Ōtākau (Otago) style, the sun is out and (as long as there isn’t too much of a breeze & I have enough layers of merino on) I can sit outside and soak up the sun. These days I often take my laptop out to the garden in the afternoon to work on my garden memoir, or this newsletter.
I was all set to write about the korimako today. We’ve been waking up to their waiata (song) every morning lately, and I feel blessed to have this manu (bird) around.
However, I was out taking detail shots of tawai for my Weekly Wildlife post this week when I saw something growing out of a wee nook between the branches of a wild cherry tree. I think I actually squealed - fortunately, no one was around!
This little vine is a young pōhuehue (I asked the helpful folk at iNaturalist and they reckon the species is Muehlenbeckia australis). There’s two things that make this discovery the highlight of my week:
I didn’t plant this, nor do I have any growing in the garden. This means it was probably brought in by birds or insects, and is part of natural native forest regeneration.
Pōhuehue is a host plant for the copper butterflies, endemic to Aotearoa New Zealand. We’re still trying to pin down how many species we have and what they are, but I saw one in my garden last year so I’m adding them to my list of lepidoptera to provide for.
It’s another sunny day here, so I’m going to give the birdfeeder a clean and refill, and head out with my camera in the afternoon. I hope you enjoy your Sunday and have a wonderful week ahead, whatever the weather.
Zenobia x
Wow such a lovely writeup!