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(Published in Jacksonville's Times Union Monday, September 28, 2004)
What's been eating my bushy seedbox? by Ginny Stibolt Bushy seedbox, (Ludwigia peruviana) a Florida native and a member of the evening primrose family (Onagraceae), has volunteered all over my yard. In a field where we stopped mowing every week, it’s about 12 inches high on a single stem. It’s much bigger and bushier along the edge of the pond, reaching five feet high. I’ve seen some seedboxes growing along the shores of Lake Asbury that must be more than ten feet tall even though the books say the height ranges from 10 to 36 inches. I guess “they” weren’t thinking about how well plants grow here in Florida. The pretty, four-petaled yellow flower is almost an inch across on the bigger plants. The ridged, four-sided, hard seed capsule is quite distinctive and gives rise to the common name. Some of my books state that it is used in dried flower arrangements, but either the birds have eaten them or they fall off, because all the capsules are gone in short order around here. If there are any leaves left in the fall, they’ll turn red and I can see some of that coloration already. But the leaves are pretty ratty looking because something’s been eating my bushy seedbox. Something had been eating all the leaves.
The sources of information including extension services and universities say with great certainty that the tomato worms will only feed on plants in the tomato family (Solanaceae) which also includes tobacco, petunia, potato, henbane, jimson-weed and of course, deadly nightshade. This is an interesting plant family with weird chemistry and because of its family, Europeans originally thought the tomato was poisonous when early botanical explorers brought it back from the new world. They called it the love apple for its possible aphrodisiac qualities but tomatoes were mostly grown as ornamentals. The Italians started using tomatoes for their sauces first in Europe. The colonists brought tomatoes with them as an ornamental, but Thomas Jefferson served tomatoes at Monticello and in the early 1800’s the Cajuns used tomatoes in their jambalayas. In 1820 when most people still believed them to be poisonous, Colonel Robert Johnson ate a whole bushel of yellow tomatoes. People who came to watch him die on the courthouse steps in Salem, NJ must have been disappointed when he didn’t. So this tomato worm was slumming on my boring, nicotine-less bushy seedbox and then it was attacked by wasps. It turned yellow and died there on the stem and either fell off or was picked off by a bird because it no longer matched the leaves. Poor worm. Still haven’t identified the other worm, but maybe one of you will know what it is.
I asked a manager of a garden shop if he stocked Florida native plants and species to attract butterflies. He told me that they were too hard to sell because something always ate the foliage so he’d carry only the plants that looked good on the shelf so people would buy them–mostly aliens. How sad is that? Perhaps some educational information and better marketing would help. How about if he offered free caterpillars to his customers? Hmm…
Here are a couple of links to information on creating butterfly gardens: ~ ~ ~ Ginny Stibolt is a naturalist and a gardener with a Masters degree in Plant Taxonomy. She’d like to hear from readers who have suggestions and questions. After all there are more than a few transplanted gardeners here in northeast Florida trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t in planting zone 8/9. You may contact her or read more of her articles posted on her website: www.transplantedgardener.com.
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