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bardofely
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Joined: 22 Dec 2004
Posts: 3292
Location: Playa San Marcos, Tenerife
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 Post subject: Swan Plant |
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The Swan Plant (Gomphocarpus fruticosus) is a close relative of the Milkweed and Monarch butterfly caterpillars will happily eat it. I was told there was some growing in Palmar in Teno and a friend there volunteered to get me some but she then said it had all gone. Presumably eaten by caterpillars or pulled up by people.
I sent for some seeds from a nursery in the UK and now have one excellent specimen that has flowered and is producing seeds. It grows about 4ft tall so is bigger than the Milkweed too.
Here are some photos:
Swan Plant flowers
Swan Plant seedpod - this is the bit that is said to look like a swan!
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Fri Aug 01, 2008 10:31 pm
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rob
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Joined: 08 Aug 2004
Posts: 7707
Location: Tenerife
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Another non indigenous plant for the island? 
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Sat Aug 02, 2008 7:27 am
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bardofely
Supreme Reefer
Joined: 22 Dec 2004
Posts: 3292
Location: Playa San Marcos, Tenerife
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| rob wrote: | | Another non indigenous plant for the island? |
Yes, but food plant for a non-indigenous butterfly! Actually I was thinking about this recently - that if there are no Monarchs here that is no different to before they were first here and that was only made possible by the Milkweed, which wasn't from here but that people planted in gardens. However, if you look in books on wildlife you will find the Monarch listed and is something people expect to see about now that it has been here for so long. So what's right and wrong on such matters? I am not sure it can be said.
If we agreed that all non-indigenous plants have got to go to remove them would be an impossible task seeing as many are all over the island in vast numbers, like the two species of Prickly Pears, which are again something people expect to see here. What Tenerife would look like minus all wildlife from elsewhere would be very different indeed and a large proportion of its animals would need to be got rid off as well as plants.
Rabbits, rats, mice, one type of shrew, parakeets and both species of frog are all non-native, as are Mosquito fish that live in most of the freshwater of Tenerife.
The endemic birds of prey, which are having a hard time anyway due to poisons and pesticides, would have had far less prey species long ago and would have mainly eaten lizards and small birds.
I just thought - the Heron would have had nothing to eat at all, seeing as it eats frogs and fish and there were none!
Even the ponds of Erjos only got there because they dug out all the soil and took it away. If it all stayed dry, as it now is, and reverted to land vegetation it would be closer to how it once was.
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Sat Aug 02, 2008 9:13 am
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rob
Moderator
Joined: 08 Aug 2004
Posts: 7707
Location: Tenerife
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Yes, rather like the argument against farmers taking out hedges to make larger, more economical fields. It was the farmers who 'invented' hedges... not mother nature.
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Sat Aug 02, 2008 10:24 am
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Tenerife Seagull
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Joined: 28 Aug 2005
Posts: 541
Location: Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife
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Okay Bard, you have the food. Where are you going to get the caterpillars or monarch eggs from?
We are fortunate that for some days now a monarch has been fluttering about as we have eaten our dinner on the balcony. It floats over the roofs below us, and it has many flowers to choose from in the gardens.
We were treated to an aerial display by two kestrels today. There seemed to be a territorial dispute going on. They tangled frequently and locked claws. Each time they did this they plummeted in a spiral towards the ground. Occasionally a third kestrel had a swipe at them in the air.
By the way Bard, excellent pictures.
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Sat Aug 02, 2008 8:35 pm
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bardofely
Supreme Reefer
Joined: 22 Dec 2004
Posts: 3292
Location: Playa San Marcos, Tenerife
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| Tenerife Seagull wrote: | Okay Bard, you have the food. Where are you going to get the caterpillars or monarch eggs from?
We are fortunate that for some days now a monarch has been fluttering about as we have eaten our dinner on the balcony. It floats over the roofs below us, and it has many flowers to choose from in the gardens.
We were treated to an aerial display by two kestrels today. There seemed to be a territorial dispute going on. They tangled frequently and locked claws. Each time they did this they plummeted in a spiral towards the ground. Occasionally a third kestrel had a swipe at them in the air.
By the way Bard, excellent pictures. |
I don't have to get them from anywhere - my problem, which has been going on for years now is how to feed the vast number of caterpillars that hatch out from the eggs laid on the Milkweed plants on my balcony. I have taken some down to Jenny in the past and given them to Nia but Jenny has lost all her plants in the calima so can't help at present.
I have in the past been forced to kill hundreds of caterpillars by releasing them where they had no hope of finding any food at all.
Basically the problem is caused by a severe shortage of parks and gardens and flower borders that have any Milkweed growing in them. Sometimes it is made worse like a border I know in Silencio in which all the plants were pulled out and geraniums planted instead. This causes female Monarchs that can lay over a hundred eggs each but are supposed to only lay one or two per plant to plaster the plants they do find in desperation. When the caterpillars hatch there are far too many to feed on one plant and without help the whole lot die and the plant gets ruined. The problem is a worldwide one and there are websites selling and distributing Milkweed seeds.
In a natural environment there should be adequate numbers of plants and butterflies but what has happened is that there are insufficient plants to feed the caterpillars. The American Monarchs have other threats to contend with including destruction of trees they overwinter in in Mexico, destruction of habitat from there all the way up to Canada and poisoning from pesticides.
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Sat Aug 02, 2008 9:40 pm
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