Happy new year

Wildflower update - Common floss flower

The roads around mysore were lined with these white/pale lilac flossy flowers. A friend obliged with a picture and Kehimkar's book, as always, helped identify it as the Common floss flower - an aggressive invader that attracts butterflies.

Enroute to Ranganathithu

Merry Christmas

A merry Christmas, happy new year and a very jolly holiday season to all fellow nature bloggers.









This Christmas saw many additions to my kitchen garden - 12 pots of carrot, 4 breathtaking cabbage pots and 1 tomato plant laden with tomatoes.

The common albatross?

Indiranagar in bloom

I can never tire of the neighbourhood trees.

The Spastic Society

The recently held 4km walk/run organized by the Spastic Society took me to their campus in Indiranagar. A really green and serene place, full of many trees...

The wall inside had a beautiful painting..

Spider

Female golden orb spider, as the phytophactor points out in his comment

Bird@Bannerghatta

I am told this is the Indian Pond Heron, though the picture differs slightly from the one in Salim Ali's book in that the one in the book has a brown breast, not brown and white as it is here.

It has amazing beak - pointed and straight.

Symbiosis ? Commensalism?

Cattle egrets and cattle - is the relationship symbiotic (where both the bird and the animal benefit) or is commensalism (where only the egret benefits) ?

The egret gets its food - insect, particularily grasshoppers , when the grass is disturbed by the cattle.

 And the cattle ? Freed of insects that might cause disease? warned in advance of approaching animals/humans?

Caterpillar

The detail on the body of this caterpillar was quite nice.. The white and red pattern leads me to think it is the caterpillar of the female common mormon butterfly, that mimics the crimson/common rose.

In and around the butterfly park

 

 

  

 

 

 

Red Pierrot

The red pierrot was much smaller than all the other butterflies at the Butterfly park, perhaps because it was the only 'blue'. It was flying around, quite fast and it is only after much waiting around that we managed to get a few shots. And well worth it! Such a spectacular pattern - orange and brown on the upper side wings and a beautiful orange, white brown spotted pattern on the underside. Kehimkar's book tells me that the larvae food is the Kalanchoe, of which there was plenty at the park.

 

Succulent plants

"New" flowers

While at the butterfly park, i saw many plants that i had not seen before and hence could not identify..
As always, many thanks to all my blogging friends who were quick to come up with the names.

This one seemed to be the Field Sow-Thistle (Sonchus arvensis)

 

This one is the butterfly bush (buddleja asiatica), that attracts of 'hordes of butterflies'

 

The lemonia (ravena spectabilis), which has a curious flattened appearance and is said to be a 'great butterfly attractor'.

 

  

 

  
This is the clerodendrum paniculatum or the pagoda flower

Jatropha podagrica

Flowers

mexican heather

star cluster

powderpuff (Calliandra haematocephala)

powerderpuff (Calliandra haematocephala)

cosmos

euphorbia

canna