Found this chrysalis? this morning

I was looking at one of my Christmas Senna bushes this morning. I was trying to find a sulphur cat to take a picture of, that might be better than the one's I currently have. I was doing this today because the bush is beginning to bud. Shortly it will produce beautiful yellow flowers. When this happens, the sulphur butterfly cats that feed on the bushes will change color. When the plant is not blooming, late Jan. through Oct., the cats are green striped lengthwise. When the plant blooms starting in November the cats become yellow striped because they will eat the yellow flowers instead of the leaves.

Looking closely at every branch trying to find one of these green striped cats, I spotted this creature that, to me, appears to be a chrysalis in progress.

Can anyone verify this for me?

This bush is frequented by sulphurs and whites, all year round, for their larvae needs.

Thanks, Art

Did you ever find out what it is/was? Should have emerged by now?

Do let us know...am curious!

~ Cat

Nope, never found out. It was blown away two days later during Wilma. The whole tree was blown out of the ground. I didn't get around to replanting it for about a week. Since then the tree is doing ok. It's even gone into it's regular bloom cycle which here in Zone 10 is from November through early January.
I have been monitoring it so I can finish up another post I made the same day about "before and after the flowers" which deals with Orange Barred Sulphur cats. They are green and black striped most of the year until the tree blooms with bright yellow flowers this time of the year. Then the cats turn yellow and black striped because instead of eating leaves they eat the yellow flowers. This changes the cats colors.
The Orange Barred Sulphur butterflies never dissapeared after the storm, so I expect to see cats any day now.
A side note about the tree, which is Christmas Senna, Winter Cassia, Senna bicapsularis. This tree is the single biggest attractor of just about every kind of bug that inhabits my yard. From flies to dragon flies to butterflies, moths, strange colored bees and everything in between. When you walk around the tree it has constant activety. There is always something crawling, resting, eating, or flying around this tree. It's always interesting to see what's visiting the tree and what's going on there.
This tree is almost full grown. It's about 9' at it's tallest point. It's wide and kind of flat topped so it's easy to look around, under, and in it. All the growth is like a canopy at the top. No lower branches or leaves. Some time today I will go out and take a picture of it so you can get an idea of what I am talking about.
Art

Art,

Yes, do post a photo of the tree and blooms it has or email them to me.

I am trying to revamp my yard and have been quite pleased with my duranta bushes...they have attracted a large variety of butterflies and I've been able to photograph lots of butterflies without ever having to leave my backyard :o) Duranta wasn't known to be a larval host until I found the marius hairstreak caterpillars feeding on it - that made news in the butterfly world.

~ Cat

Ok Cat, here is a picture of the Christmas Senna, Winter Cassia, Senna bicapsularis with an inset closeup of the flowers. Remember this bush/tree is similar to Bahama Senna or other Senna's except that this one only blooms November to early January here in Zone 10 vs the others which bloom all year long.
It's a care free bush/tree. This is one of two I have. It has been blown over twice by Katrina and Wilma. It's shown replanted and propped up. Even though it's been replanted twice since August it's still going into it's regular bloom cycle.

I have another suggestion for you in the next post.

Art

If you are looking for a real good butterfly nectar bush/tree I have the following suggestion. See if you can find a Schefflera 'Nova' Schefflera actinophylla. I have a link to mine in the plant files below. I also have a good sized description along with three pictures of the bush at the link. Check it out.

http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/67562/index.html

Note in my three pictures of the bush. My top picture is of a two year old plant from a cutting. In the picture it's about 10' tall. The second picture is of a one year old also from a cutting (against a 5' wall.) The third or bottom picture is of a six month old plant also from a cutting (against a six foot fence). My point is it grows fast. It's also the single best butterfly nectar bush in my yard to this point in time.

If you can't find one, I'll gladly ship you a cutting. They take very easily, in fact if you are trimming the bush and leave a piece behind on the ground, that piece will take. Some might call that invasive, but that's the only way I have seen it spread so far. It has not come up by itself anywhere else in the yard. At one time I had three of them in various spots in the yard. None has ever produced another seedling except if I leave a cutting behind on the ground.

One more word of caution. I get an itchy feeling from rubbing against the leaves.

Art

Art,

Thanks for the photos and the information. I will look into both of those and try to figure out which could possibly be kept as a bush or small tree. I already have huge trees in my yard so must resort to maintaining flowerbeds and shrubs.

Do know know how old or tall each must be before they start to bloom? I really do like the blooms on that senna!

There is a cassia tree (about 6 ft tall) that has yellow flowers back at the ranch. I have seen seedlings show up from the fallen seeds. Never noticed any butterflies on it though.

Thanks again,

~ Cat

This Winter Senna blooms the first year. When I bought it at HD, there were two plants in a 4" pot. I didn't read how tall it got on the label. A week or so later when I was ready to plant it I read the label. It said it gets to 10 or 12 feet. I was surprised since I thought I was buying a bedding plant. Both plants in the four inch pot had flowers. At that point they were probably only 5 or 6 inches tall.
This Senna unlike the others does not make seedlings on it's own. I made that comment in the plant files. In over three years I have not had a single other plant come up from the two I have.

The Schefflera 'Nova' begins making flowers after it is about 3 months old. It flowers throughout the year. It also does not reseed on it's own.