More stuff of my backyard

[urbpan]

Here's a very small snail! I wish I knew experts in every field of biology, but probably even the most well-informed malacologist would say "dunno. subadult, terrestrial gastropod. shell coils on right hand side."



This is clearly some kind of orange-flowered perennial milkweed, planted by people who owned the house before us. When I google "orange milkweed" I get hits for Asclepias tuberosa also called "butterfly milkweed" (a little redundant, no?) which occurs in 3/4 of the US, but is on the endangered list in several New England states. Anyone actually know what it is?

Comments

[aemiis-zoo.livejournal.com]

Yay! For the tiny snail. That is all.

[plantmom.livejournal.com]

Asclepias tuberosa it is, indeed. I know it as butterfly weed, too. I have a plant which self-seeded in one of my beds. Handsome plant.

Is regular milkweed also endangered in some areas? I treasure mine and get a thrill every time I see monarchs on it. I also have a large patch of vernonia fasciculata, aka ironweed, out back. Butterflies seem to go apeshit over that too.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Doesn't seem to be. It's fascinating to me that I don't have any in my yard. I'm tempted to plant it around the weedy margins.

http://plants.usda.gov/java/nameSearch?keywordquery=common+milkweed&mode=comname&submit.x=0&submit.y=0

[plantmom.livejournal.com]

Oh, do! There are a few plants which I planted initially because I liked how they looked (like the ironweed, which is in full bloom right now when not much else of a purple persuasion is), only to discover that they're even more popular with butterflies and bees than they are with me. Win-win!