Help me find Green Shrimp Plant (browne's blechum)

Okay...I've scoured the internet and posted to the seed/plant exchange forums but can't seem to find any Green Shrimp Plant. This is from the acanthaceae (acanthus) family. Blechum pyramidatum aka Browne's Blechum. It is a perennial with sparsely hairy plant with stems that break quite easily. It has underground runners and gets about 2 feet tall. The flowers are small, tubular, whitish lavender and produced within large green bracts found at the tips of the stems. Possibly growing along the woods or shady areas in Florida. This is the larval host plant for the Malachite butterfly. We get malachites here and I'd like to raise them...but alas, I've hiked around the parks and all around 100 acres of scrub land back at the ranch but just cannot seem to find what they are using out in the field. I do see malachites but have never seen one ovipositing or even flying close to the ground thinking maybe it's looking for a larval host plant.

If anyone has any to trade, sell, give away or knows of a source for Green Shrimp Plant - please, please...pleeeeeeeeeeeese let me know.

~ Cat

This is a photo of the plant and the small blooms.

Cat I see Floridian has a pic of it in the plant files. She live in Floridia. Maybe she can find some for you. Also read that it is naturalized in Hawaii and you might check with Alohoya. Can find her on brug or tropical forums

found a good host plant list for some of the more exotic butterflies you have down there Cat. The plant host list is the bottom 3rd of the article
http://www.caymanwildlife.org/plants.html

I emailed Floridian and Sanchez a few days ago but never received a response :o( hence the continuing search...but if anyone has contacts or friends in Florida who might come across it...do let me know.

Donna, I will look at that website pronto!!!

~ Cat

I am looking too Cat..:- It's a doozy!

I'd love to see you host the Malachites! :-D

This message was edited Dec 2, 2006 4:30 PM

Cat... here ya go..

http://butterfliesetc.com/hostplants.php

click on the link for liner, 4" pot , 6" pot and it wil tell you the price of the plants. They about a buck a piece it looks like for a liner plant. You can email them too.

Hope that helps some.

Could Flemingia strobilifera be another name for it Cat?

oh thank you Starlight. It has some plants I'm looking for too.

Same here Starlight

Starlight...excellent website!!! I've already contacted them in the hopes of obtaining mass quantities of GSP :o) and a few other goodies I saw. Many thanks!!!

~ Cat

Thank you Starlight! What a great website!!!

Deb...I looked up Flemingia strobilifera - that's a horse of different color :o) Wild hops...fabaceae family as opposed to green shrimp plant - acanthaceae family....but that site Starlight listed has the species of Green Shrimp Plant I am seeking.

It's strange though...there is red shrimp plant, yellow shrimp plant and blue shrimp plant...and they all look similar but the malachite won't use those types...they are from the justicia family I think.

~ Cat

This message was edited Dec 2, 2006 8:52 PM

Your welcome. Glad I could be of help. They have a bunch of things I want too. The problem is what to decide on. Want em all. LOL

I think the difference is is the nectar content of the green verses the other shrimp colors. Also some butterflies have to eat certain plants that contain certain alkaloids in them to keep other predators from eating them. Besides the flowers you might if you can stand it put little dishes of rottenfruit out for them too. They really love that.

You all may be more experienced in raising butterflie s than I am, but here a few tips for helping them along in your gardens for anybody who might be interested.

Have a seperate pile of rocks away from their food source. This is so that they can climb on it and sun themselve s in the morning.

Put a small birdbath or other semi-shallow water source in another area for them to drink from.

In another area. Take a bunch of old wood pieces and stack them up in a square , almost like building a square house from lincoln logs, but leave small cracks and crevices for them to go hide at night in to sleep and protect them from predators and a safe place for them to make babies.

Place other plants in a horseshoe type shape as a wind break for them.

Every year I am amazed at the amount of butterfly chrysalis that I have hanging down around the edge of my airconditioning unit. Last year I even found a few hanging from of f the handles of my hand trolley cart. I felt bad cuz I had knocked a few off when I grabbed it to move some items before I notice d them hanging there. Still amazed that the caterpillars climbed up that high .

whoops accidential double post LOL

This message was edited Dec 4, 2006 5:49 AM

Thanks Cat~ This finding the right host plant can be quite tricky sometimes. What about the Ruellia coccinea plant? Isn't it also a host plant?

Starlight thanks for the Butterfly tips...I will try some of those. My backyard has good windbreak, and in Spring I will try moving some things around to sepparate areas as you suggested.

I just noticed on the distribution map that they are clusterd in certain southern areas of TX FL MEXICO....and then one tiny square in Kansas??? lol What's up with that? Certainly they passed through northern TX on their way... Didn't anyone notice?

oOMaybe we will see some here next year...Oo

One of those things that make ya go "humm".

:-D

Have any of you noticed this past year a deline in your butterflies and hummers. I did here. I hate to think of all the ones that have destroyed or are misplaced and now lost from Katrina and Rita and all the other storms we had last year.

With so much destruction, people are still working on their houses and it will years yet probably before they begin to do any work on their gardens and then it wil be years before some of that ground is even plantable .

I wonder where will they all go since alot of their food sources have been destroyed. Will they be able to survive or will they become endangered and extinct. Wish more people would grow host plants for all the butterflies and hummingbirds.

As a gift in my relatives and friends Christmas cards this year, I am attempting to send a packet of Milkweed seeds and a note.

Star~ I think they will just migrate over to other places... or spread out more. Butterflies are very strong creatures, despite their delicate appearance. If a Monarch can migrate over 3000 miles, so can many other that were not considered migratory before. They also experienced a huge drop in Painted Lady numbers in California due to the loss of habitat by drought and fires. The PLs just move farther over I think, and met in the middle. Whereas I could say you didn't lose them, they just came to Texas lol. We have plenty of Milkweed, Holyhocks, etc, and other hosts... and plenty of room..:-). They will all come back as their habitat is restored for sure!

I saw more than ever this year, and expect even more than that next year.

I don't know about a decline...as I'm only in my second year of butterflying...so to me everything I see is an addition :o) But the scientists and leps that come down to this area to do research are quick to mention global warming and the destruction of the forests and native lands. I believe all the new converts to butterfly conservation are making a difference. Just think...if only 2% of the eggs a butterfly lays make it to adulthood in the wild...we are upping the odds with all the ones we raise and release. Of course, having their nectar and larval hosts to ensure their survival is a must.

Starlight...we're one up on ya...we use fruit all the time but we also concoct a mean batch of butterfly brew...about ten pounds of bananas, a pound of brown sugar and a bottle of guiness stout beer....mix it up in the blender and let it ferment in a plastic jug (with occasional venting of course...elsewise we'll have butterfly bait all over the garage walls). --- and thank you for the horseshoe planting idea. I have noticed butterflies like nectaring from plants I have in a U shaped area that is between my house and privacy fence. It really does provide a good wind break for them.

I have ruellia growing in m yard but they never use it...haven't seen the coccinea one yet. I have the Mexican white and purple and my neighbor has a really tall native one. I think it works for the white peacocks as we see those all over the place.

Deb...a tiny area in Kansas???? How did that happen??? Hmmm.... indeed!!!

Am thinking things like that happen when one purchases plants with hidden butterfly eggs or even goes to the extent of purchasing butterfly chrysalids that aren't known to be from a particular area and inadvertly introduce them.

A couple of days ago I read a posting on our local list server from some folks that were down here last week and ended up finding two different tiger moths (not known to be that far north) clinging to their door by their security light. They are thinking moths laid eggs on their car or possibly the moths got up into the undercarriage and ended up getting transported 400 miles north.

I am a firm believer that 'if you plant it, they will come' :o) but you really must be in the area where it can happen. Guess that's why I like living in south Texas so much...so many species and so many opportunities for Mexican strays.

Becky...that is a wonderful idea. You can't go wrong with milkweed seeds!!!

~ Cat




This message was edited Dec 3, 2006 1:24 PM

Ditto. That an excellent idea Becky!!

Deb... I guess that part never entered my head. I know I have two old in really bad shape sour cherry trees in the backyard that need to really be removed, but I am afraid to because when they bloom, one night a year I have some sort of butterfly that come s in in a huge group and they will cover the tre e and roost on it overnight and then they are gone in the morning.

I planted a bunch of Hollyhock seed this past spring. Hopefully, my plants will be be big enough to bloom this year.

I have watched them do this three years in a row. I have no idea what species it is because I just stand on my steps and watch them. I am too afraid to go near them for fear of scaring them and disrupting their feeding and at night there is just no way I gonna go out in the back in the dark. I got to many rattling rattlers and Timber rattlers and with my luck I would step on or meet up with one of them. It bad enough when I meet up with them during the day.

I know most of the time my yard looks like a giant jungle and my flower beds a mess. I have wild passion flower vine that runs underground and pops up all over the yard in everywheres, but I can't mow or pull them out becaus e my Monarchs caterpillars need them for food . Oh how them babie s can eat. Then I have my Milkweed scattered around through the yard too. I harvested some pods so I can grow more plants and I let some just land whereever they want and sprout to help ensure I have plenty of food.

Well, cool, tell me more about the butterfly brew. This a new one for me. What is guiness stout beer. Is that the name of it. I am a coffee freak in the extreme so I am not up on my beers, sorry. How long do you generally leave it ferment for.

I know I went 22 days during the summer without a drop of rain, so this year I making a bigger mud puddle area for them.

I have several ruellias, the purple, white , yellow, and pink. I see the butterflys feeding on the purple and the pink, but that usually if there is not too much else blooming at the moment. I have tried the red here a couple of times, but it very hard to find and when I do it about $5 bucks for a tiny pot and it doesn't seem to like the humidity here to much. I haven't been able to keep it going, I lose it over the winter.


Edited to say that $15 bucks not 5. If anybody know s where to get some seed for it I would appreciate it. I can afford to buy alot of seed for them and grow it more than I can buy one plant.




This message was edited Dec 3, 2006 2:58 PM

Star...if you have passion flower vines then it's fritillaries and other longwings that use them as larval hosts...and those frits can really eat too!!! Monarchs only use milkweed.

I leave the butterfly bait to ferment until I use it all. I start using it right away and use a little every week or so depending on what's flying in the yard or at the ranch. Elsewise the jug sits in the garage until I need it. Just remember fermenting fruit forms a gas so you'll need to unscrew the cap every so often depending on how hot your garage gets.

Here re a couple of old posts you may want to peruse.

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/670680/ (photos of some fruit feasters)

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/572316/ (an old post about the butterfly bait)

~ Cat

Here's a photo of the Malachite butterfly I am trying to attract. This photo is from our local NABA park. They can usually be seen feasting on the fruit hung from baskets there.

~ Cat

Thanks for the links. How beautiful your Malalchite is!!!!

Let me ask you this . Maybe you wil know the answer and maybe not. Thinking about putting the banana brew out, I wonder do you think it would attract bats. Down the road from me about 4 miles this woman has bats. Oodles and oodles of bats. They eat a good portion of the mosquitoes we have down over here and other insects in the evening and at night.

Do you think the brew would attract them to my place and maybe harm the butterflies? I have a natural little ecosystem I have been nurturing and building up here and don't want to attract something that would hurt all the work I have done so far.

Beautiful Malachite!!!! They remind me of mint chip ice cream lol.

Fly....I like to think of malachites as keylime pie with a drizzle of chocolate and a dab of whipped cream!!!!

I don't think the bait will attract bats as they eat insects at night. Moths will also come to the bait at night though.

I know there are fruit feeding bats...not sure what kind you have??? Guess you can put out a little bit of bait on a tray during the day, wash it off and put it away at night??? Butterflies roost at night...so they won't be flying around when bats are out. Bats use sonar to detect movement right so am thinking the butterfly will be safe snoozing away as evening sets.

Hopefully some of the other leps on here can better answer your question concerning bats. At time I sure wish I had some frequenting my yard...got gobs of skeeters!!!

~ Cat

I just need to reinterate for starlight...Be sure to vent the jug!

One of our dear friends here got the goop all over her house because it exploded!

We cant repeat this enough...

:-D

Becky, a girl after my heart!! Sending MW to all your loved ones is a super duper idea!!

This message was edited Dec 4, 2006 6:12 AM

Is there about so many days, or a way to tell that you need to vent the jar? I am already having visions of coming home one night and finding the trailer walls a new color and the dog with banana butterfly brew dripping off his chin and ears. LOL

Beside s that most of the time I am an accident waiting for a happening and if something can go wrong it will for me. :)

Becky .. do you have enough MW? If not I have some seed of it I can send to you. Harvested several hundred seeds and will probably only put about half that amount out for the butterflies.

Thank you Starlight! That's very nice of you. I think I have enough to include in my Christmas cards. I don't send out nearly as many cards as I used to. (Many of my relatives and some of my friends are deceased.) I'm just sending about 10 seeds in each card as well. Thanks for offering, though.

Man! To have a jug of bait explode inside my house ...... Yikes! That's not anything I'd want to experience! I will probably just set the jug out in my backyard next to the house. That way if it does explode, the butterflies can come lick it off my exterior walls! LOL

Hey Cat!
When you make the brew and put it in a plastic milk jug, would it be alright to sut a sharp slit in the top of the lid? Nothing could crawl in, and the volatile gasses could escape..oO Just a thought.

Deb,

I've never tried cutting a slit in the jar...am not sure if the bait would ferment if the gasses won't form???

I use a gallon jug of water with a screw on cap...and I either put it in my garage or out on the back porch. I check on it daily and unscrew the cap to release the gasses then I sort of 'squish' the jug a bit and put the lid back on. The sides of the jug will expand as the fermenting process goes on...same routine...day after day..or two if I forget. I also have smaller soda pop plastic bottles, the 20 oz size, filled halfway with bait that I leave back at the ranch. I only vent those once a week when I happen to drive out there. So far they haven't exploded...possibly because it's been cool here. I wouldn't try that in the middle of summer where temps get over 100!!!

~ Cat

Alright Cat, that's why I asked..haha Your good to remember all that venting schedule. I'm kinda skeered I would forget about it and goop everything up. lol.