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Alright thanks for sharing your garden with us. We are going to move from a
butterfly garden into a butterfly Center
I'm joined by a couple folks from Mission Texas to talk about the National
butterfly Center
and its this can be a real treat I think you're in for something special
thanks so much for being here
we have Mariana Trevino-Wright who is executive director of the national
butterfly Center
and Max Munos who's the guy takes care the center he's the manager of the
grounds
welcome to Central Texas gardener thank you is our it's a real pleasure to have
you here
tell me about the center you've been around for a number of years
I'm just learning about it though well the National butterfly Center is a project
of the North American butterfly Association
and they chose Mission Texas for its prime location
is a home to more species the Lower Rio Grande Valley is
more species of butterflies than anywhere else in the United States
anywhere else in North America the center's been there for over 10 years
we have a beautiful visitors pavilion that
will be three years old in the fall okay so it and National Center in Mission
Texas
and I know that people already travel from all over the world to come to the
Rio Grande Valley to see birds so this seems like a a beautiful compliment it really
is and and
the birds come through the central US flyway which
of course we're at the tip of and what's the number one food for your
migratory songbirds?
caterpillars and butterflies right of course they're following the food
trail
interesting very interesting so and the actually the migrant in the
many butterfly species are migratory right Max?
yes you will find the whole lot on their and
come from many different place in north and south right okay so many the species
again are migratory so the birds are following those there
but a real special treat for people
who love butterflies
for more northerly parts the United States there are lots of
endemic tropical species there right
there are of the 700 species of butterflies in North America
about 300 those species can be found in the Lower Rio Grande Valley
and over 200 those species have been photographed and identified
at the National butterfly Center on our one hundred acres
okay now there's some really special critters here and I know
I've seen a handful of these
in the past but that there's some remarkable species and lets just
give people a little taste of some of the exotics
if you will. The ones that
you only find in Lower Rio Grande Valley there's a species that
I was looking at some images of a clear winged butterfly
that is a tropical butterfly and that is one but if I will not find
the United States
mmm and now we have other ones and one of our special ones is
malachite as well so that you'll see in the Lower Rio Grande
Valley
another one that you wont see north of us
from okay the malachite is this is an interesting species really colorful
and a big species to right? it is a very large brush foot like
a monarch so it's gonna be about a four-inch butterfly
okay and it's green and black instead of orange and black
okay and it's a woodland butterfly so it's perfectly camouflaged
hideout in the hackberrys down there in south texas right?
okay and the clear wing obviously lives up to its name
and the and really remarkable I I guess this is camouflaged its ultimate in way
a transparent butterfly yes. A stealth butterfly
it is but with our place
in the there near the Gulf of Mexico and the way the winds and the tropical
storms blowing
we do when we get southern winds we get these subtropical and tropical species
that have maybe been blown off course
like the Orion Cecropian and the guatemalan crackers
so there are lots of really cool butterflies that you can't find anywhere
else
other than going maybe to those countries are to the tropics and
central america
well I will say that and I've had an some beautiful experiences looking at
butterflies in my life but
none more beautiful than spending time in the Lower Rio Grande Valley during
migration season you can
drive through literally clouds of these guys
or pull over and not drive through them
so but a a just amazing
and there is so much that we can do to help these migraters too and we wanna
spend some time talking about that let's talk about the migraters now
because there's some pareles involved in migration that we want to really focus in
on but
lots a species of course the Monarchs right the Monarchs the swallow tales the
sole furs
the Americans snouts which are very very common
buckeyes there many species that migrate south because butterflies are
cold-blooded species
so they need Sun and heat
to have the energy they need to feed and to breed
right now max I was surprised to learn this but
butterflies don't just migrate back say book for example the famous example of
the Monarchs they don't fly all the way from Mexico to the United States and then
back
it takes generations it does the monarchs will take off from
Canada
arrive in say New Jersey mmm-hmm they lay their eggs there on a
milkweed plant and once the caterpillar hatches and
turns into a butterfly it takes off from there they have their own little GPS
system
Which I don't understand yet but they have their own so
you get somebody hopping from New Jersey to North Carolina or
et cetera just kinda take hops by the generation
it's fascinating now um a lot of people are concerned about butterfly
populations
particularly those that are migrating through the united states right now
because
in many ways there in indicator species right they are they're very
sensitive environmental indicator to the health of our
flora of our plants and you know we've had drought for many years in the
United States
one of the devastating consequences of a drought and development
is the disappearance of native plant species sure
sure so when the plants disappear the butterflies really there's no food
source
and they're stuck in a very real way
are we seeing declining populations we're seeing reports of declines and
you know every year the North American butterfly Association conducts counts
three times a year
and these are open to enthusiasts and naturalist to participate you can
find your counts on the nava website
join those and they're collecting data how many butterflies how many species
how many of
each species to try to gather enough data to
ascertain patterns and causes whether its climate development
season all issues and really there is some science behind it but I don't know
that anything's been determined
okay well and there's a lot we know that we can do is gardeners that can help
right max yes one of the things that I've noticed a lot is a lot of people
take the plants that we use in the center as
weeds and they end up destroying them getting rid of them
I mean homes out there with real nice turf but no plants no
plants that the butterflies really need right so
choosing native plants that provide larval food which means the caterpillars
are going to chew them down
that's when we've had some interesting stories about
I've had ladies create their own gardens come up to me and say
I want a plant to attract a lot of butterflies but then they come back to
me they say look it's booming really nice but these
little worms keep eating it and I destroy those worms but never get any
butterflies
well if you destroy the the caterpillar itself you'll actually get
the butterfly. right well you brought a few plants with you
that we can use as examples of things that
provide sustenance for the butterflies
immediately next to me is American Beautyberry I didn't know this was
a butterfly plant
yes it is it actually serves as a as a berry from birds
its actually a berry for birds but when it does produce a very small flower butterflys do love the nectar
okay
so in in springtime when they bloom you can count on that now this
now this is a heliotrope it looks like a little Salvy
here almost but what's the common name for this one? That one's called the
Scorpion's tail well I can see why they do that with the
curved
thing here it has little baby flowers that monarch butterflies love
okay so heliotrope is another native we have a couple vines over here
there's a passion vine when I know passion vines are favored food for many
species right the golfer larry for one example
and zebra hiliconians love this
this particular vine and it's one that you should have at home right
well the passion vines are beautiful and they are great additions to the garden
but again
when the caterpillars come
grin and bear it right its important
with this some other things that people can do in not just to put out food
but are use of pesticides
on fungicides things like that right yes we have a nursery at the National
butterfly center of course our mission is plant native
and that the butterflies are connected to the plants
very intimately you know certain caterpillars can only eat certain foods
and if you're buying those plants from a commercial grower
there's more and more in the news about those plants being treated
with herbicides and those herbicides are designed to kill any weeds or native
plant species
and to protect the plant from pests while those worms or caterpillars are
considered pests
so we encourage everyone to buy local to buy organic
to get to know your grower so that they can answer those questions about
how the plants are treated if at all so that you're not growing plants
that not only don't attract pollinators
but actually harm them right what about the use of
genetically modified crops how's that impacting
butterflies and we hear a lot about that
well the pollen from many of those plants has been altered and butterflies
are huge pollinators now
butterflies aren't gonna go to corn but where those crops are growing and
they're treated
all the weeds that have grown up
in those areas are not going to
be able to exist with those commercial crops
so we're seeing and disappearance of native plant species
as a result of all of the treatment of our
commercially grown crops well you know
I know that our viewers here are going on do something positive about this so
that the
you know reduction of the chemicals increase the uses of the native plants
they can learn a lot about this at a festival that's coming up tell me about
the festival
well the 18th annual Texas Butterfly Festival is in Mission Texas November
second through the fifth
and its I four days of field trips and excursions
to renown public lands like Santa Ana as you mentioned
and private lands which people may never get the chance to see so people in our
community
who have incredible gardens are incredible grounds
and you're going with world-renowned trip guides and leaders
and so you can encouraged to come and see the Rio Grande Valley that's the
18th annual Texas Butterfly Festival
November second through fifth which is peak migration season
well really it's been a thrill visiting with both your love the energy to do you
bring to this and of course this is a favorite topic for gardeners across the
nation
continued luck best wishes for national butterfly Center in Mission Texas
thanks for being here and coming up next is our friend Daphne