Hi everyone! Some of you might have read my thread where Adrienne and I went on a hike through Brooker Creek Headwaters Preserve. We saw many butterflies, and it's about the only place I see Zebra Swallowtails. Of course, that's because there are thousands of pawpaws growing there. Despite checking dozens of them, we never did see a cat. I went back today, and was about to leave (I could see my car from where I was) when I found one! Here he is...
A view from the top...
Here's what the pawpaw looks like. The ones that grow here are short little shrubs; they grow knee to waist high. They bloomed a few months ago and they're beautiful; they remind me of orchids. If you look on the middle branch (the tallest one), almost all the way up, you can see the cat.
I took this a while ago, but here's what the flowers look like.
Great photo!!! Love it!!! You're so lucky to get Zebra Swallowtails there :o)
Amazing how you can spot a cat from your car!!! You're good!!!
I drive around the ranch and can spot critters on the fence on on the wing from the golf cart too :o)
I have a couple of paw paws I started from seeds...they are barely 4 inches tall. I thought Paw Paws were big trees??? Maybe I should look into getting the kind that grows into a shrub since I really don't have room for more trees...but figured by the time the ones I have grow...I'll be plowing up daisies :o)
~ Cat
Great photo, I am still trying to get my close ups to come out clear instead of blurry.
I would love to get some of that pawpaw. I cant find anything in the plant files that have a pawpaw less than 20' tall.
Do you know if it has any other name? Do you have a contact so I can order some?
chris
I didn't actually see it from the car; I was walking to my car about to leave when I was like, "Let me just check one more..." When I went hiking with Adrienne she said I have good eyes for spotting butterflies. I think it's the movement. I saw this cat because he was so plump and he was just a little lighter green than the plant. I kept looking at leaves and there he was on the stem. Hope I can find some more! By the way, when I was at the USF Butterfly Fest there was a guy selling a fruit tree called soursop as an alternative to pawpaws. I don't know if anyone here has used them as a larval food for the ZST but this guy claimed they would eat it.
I think this is the one I see in the preserve. http://www.plantatlas.usf.edu/images.asp?plantID=1258 Look at the tab that says maps and you can see it seems to grow only in the central and southern part of FL. I don't know if it grows in other states. Since it's growing in a preserve I can't harvest it, and I haven't seen any of the local native vendors selling it. I was hoping to find it at the USF Butterfly Fest but they didn't have any either.
Here's a picture of one that's a little more filled out. I took this back in spring when they were blooming. I didn't know what it was at the time, just that the flowers were pretty. When I found out it was a pawpaw I was surprised. The preserve is full of them, and not surprisingly, there are lots of ZSTs as well. Even when I drove up to the entrance (and later when I left) one flew in front of my car.
That helped!
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/59023/index.html
Thanks, not I will check with my native guy. He knows everything about what grows here.
chris
Parks wholesale has Pawpaws on sale for about $5.00 a tree w/a flat $10.00 shipping. I bought 2, and I'll take a pic tomorrow, but to give you an idea, they are about 40" tall with about 7 leaves. These grow into a 15-20 foot tall tree, but who is to say you can't keep it trimmed back? Just use hedge clippers on it. (Of course you wouldn't get any fruit that way.)
http://www.parkwholesalegrowers.com/
Suzy
Millie!
How lucky you are to find the ZST there! I could only wish here in FW, but it doesn't stop me from trying. That looks like a great cultivar of Pawpaw too! The blooms are beautiful, I agree, and it doesn't get too big.
Glad you took time to share!
:-Deb
Mellie - I hadn't heard about soursop either. No mention of it anywhere that I can find. I would love to know more if that is true. I wonder if this is the plant they are talking about:
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/73489/index.html
I googled: Annona muricata pests ...... and this is all I could find:
The sphinx caterpillar, Cocytius antueus may be found feeding on soursop leaves in Puerto Rico.
Nothing is mentioned about Zebra Swallowtails. :-/
And then I found this:
Asimina triloba (the common pawpaw tree) is the only larval host of the Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly. So ..... I don't think that the soursop is a host plant. :-(
This message was edited Jun 16, 2007 11:02 AM
I know ZSTs will feed on anything in the asimina family because the tree pawpaws don't grow where I live. I read that the soursop is a distant cousin of the asiminas - I think they're in the same scientific family.
I wonder how we can find out for sure? I really want to know. My pawpaw is tiny and is a VERY slow grower. I will be 100 years old by the time it is a decent size. :-(
Becky, What did you want to know? Plant Files will have it, I imagine.
The sweetsop & Asimina are in this family: Annonaceae. You could look at all the members of the family and see what you see about being attractive to butterflies, etc. Some of the member comments might help, too. (?)
Within the genus Asimina, there are more choices besides PawPaw. You could also look through those to see if there is anything that strikes you as "Floridian".
THEN you could go to the Florida state conservation or butterfly group and see what they say. (After you memorize all the member of the Annonaceae family.) ROTFL!
Suzy
Mellie,
Good eyes!
I too talked to the man selling the Soursop Trees at the Herb and Butterfly Plant Fair.It's the Annona Muricata in the Annonacae Family.His name is Paul Zmoda.He told me in 1998 he found the Zebra Swallowtail oviposit on the soursop leaves. The Soursop was the only thing he was selling at the plant fair.Very nice looking plants about 3 foot tall and was selling them for $12.00 each If I remember correctly. His farm is Flatwood Fruit Farm telephone (813)932-2469 e-mail: flatwoodsfarm@aol.com
At a round-up I attended I got a soursop and the person told me he had heard the same thing about them.I've never seen one in my yard yet but the soursop isn't very large yet.So I'm waiting to see for my self.
Don
Y'all got my attention now! :-) I'd sure love to see someone raise one of these ZST babies using the Soursop plant leaves. I will do some more googling and check around to find out more about this plant. Thanks for mentioning info about this plant Mellie and Don!
Well, I found it listed on a butterfly host plant list:
Zebra Swallowtail
- Pawpaw family, annonaceae
1. Asimina triloba - common pawpaw
2. Asimina pygmaea - dwarf pawpaw
3. Annona muricata – soursop
I guess now I need to locate one of these plants. :-)
This message was edited Jun 16, 2007 9:34 PM
You're welcome! The guy had great marketing - a big sign that read "Zebra Swallowtail Cafe". Of course, that piqued my interest. He did have lots of literature available. I find it interesting that he had a sign that read "Zebra Swallowtail - Rare?". I see them a lot, but only in the preserve. We've paved over the places where pawpaws would grow naturally. Then, I thought about how even on here y'all always say you don't see them. I was thinking today it would make a great science experiment to see if you cold raise a ZST on other larval food. I guess I'm lucky that I know there's at least one place I can always go visit them.
Millie, Where is Brooker Creek Headwaters Preseve?
Brooker Creek goes from Hillsborough into Pinellas county. I go in the Hills. side. From where you are I would take the Suncoast Pkwy to Van Dyke Rd. Head west and the first road on the right is Ramblewood Dr. Make a right on Ramblewood, go about half a mile and you'll see a left turn lane. Make a little u-turn there and there's a parking lot on the side of the road where the gate is. If you keep going up Van Dyke and turn at the next road (Brown Rd) there's also an entrance there. And, there's an entrance on Lutz Lake Fern but it's hard to find. The main entrance though is the one on Ramblewood. It has four parking spaces, a bulletin board, and trail maps are available.
Melanie
Attention paw paw lovers - I found a nursery in Largo, FL that sells the paw paw pictured above (asimina reticulata). They also sell another type of native paw paw that is similar in size and flowers (asimina obovata). It is Wilcox Nursery, website: http://www.wilcoxnursery.com/home.html
I don't know if they ship, but I'm definitely going to have to go check them out.
Melanie
