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Posts Tagged ‘Purple Milkweed’

Fritillary on milkweed

Posted in Butterflies, Flowers, Gardening, Insects, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on June 22, 2018| 7 Comments »

It is a gray and gloomy Friday morning and rain is forecast for most of the day. Somehow I feel the need for a boost of bright colors. So here is a shot of a Great Spangled Fritillary butterfly (Speyeria cybele) on a clump of what I believe is Purple Milkweed (Asclepias purpurascens) from this past weekend at Huntley Meadows Park.

As I worked on this image, there was a real temptation to crank up the saturation level of the colors, which made the shot look unnatural. I tried to show a little restraint and render the colors as I remember them, bright, but not in neon-like tones.

Great Spangled Fritillary

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Silver-spotted Skipper and Purple Milkweed

Posted in Butterflies, Flowers, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , , on June 16, 2016| 1 Comment »

Purple Milkweed (Asclepias purpurascens) is in bloom in multiple locations at Huntley Meadows Park and the butterflies are loving it, including this Silver-spotted Skipper (Epargyreus clarus) that I spotted this past Monday.
Generally I have trouble identifying little skipper butterflies and Wikipedia notes that there are more than 3500 species of skippers worldwide.  The Silver-spotted Skipper, though, is pretty easy to identify, given its distinctive colors and markings.
There are several species of milkweed in my favorite marshland park and I have noticed more Purple Milkweed this year than in the past. This is really good news, because Purple Milkweed is considered to S2 (“imperiled”) in the Commonwealth of Virginia, according to the 2016 plant list of the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation.
Silver-spotted Skipper

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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