Featured Plant

One of the miracles of nature occurs whenever a caterpillar transforms into a beautiful butterfly. The Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly, once it emerges from its chrysalis, is a vision of iridescent shades of dark to light blue, culminating in a line of orange dots seen only when it folds its wings.

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The large heart-shaped leaves of California Pipevine, on which its eggs are laid, are the sole source of food for the butterfly's larvae. The clusters of larvae consume the leaves which contain toxins that make the emerging caterpillars poisonous to predators. When the butterfly appears five or more days later, it too is safe from predators as it emits an offensive odor.

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The Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly is found wherever its host plant grows, sipping nectar from wildflowers and getting its moisture from "puddling," absorbing water from shallow rain puddles, and even from droppings of manure where half a dozen swallowtails can be seen hovering at a time.

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The whimsical flower of the California Pipevine looks very much like the pipe of Sherlock Holmes. Its fused sepals shaped into a small sac-like tube with veins of purple, appear at the terminal point of the woody twining stems and in the leaf axils. The blossom resembles a carnivorous plant, and has an odor that attracts carrion-feeding insects that crawl inside and are temporarily trapped, ensuring pollination.