Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: DAILY BUTTERFLIES Page 20, 1 by mellielong

mellielong wrote:
I can't say I actually see the ZST in my yard...let's just say I like to go hiking in the preserves in my neighborhood, and there happen to be a lot of pawpaws that grow there. Coincidentally, I acquired some pawpaw seed this year and have little seedlings growing. I also managed to come by some ZST caterpillars. Of course, taking anything from a preserve would be unlawful and should not be done. : )

Hopefully, next year I'll have some pawpaw seeds to share. The ones that grow here are little shrubs; we don't get the big trees (asimina triloba) this far south. Here's a pic I took when they were in bloom last year. I used to think we only had one species (asimina reticulata) but now I'm beginning to think otherwise. Most of the ones I see bloom in February, but when I was out hiking this week I saw a few that were in bloom right now. I had also thought that some of the leaves looked different, but I had attributed it to older vs. newer plants. I tried to buy some from local nurseries but was told "they're so hard to germinate, transplant, etc." so they don't carry them. At the USF butterfly festival this year there was a man selling soursop as a larval food for the ZST; apparently, it's in the same family.