Natural History Wanderings

I just went up to the UC Botanical Garden in Berkeley.

A current highlight in the garden is the Queen of the Andes (Puya raimondii), a terrestrial bromeliad. It  is the largest bromeliad species in the world. Flowers are pollinated by hummingbirds and perching birds.The stalk can be up to 10 m tall (30 ft), have over ten thousand  flowers and set 8 – 12 million seeds. In the wild Queen of the Andes plants don’t usually flower until they are about 80-100 years old however the plant in the garden is Garden is only 24 years old and has just started to bloom. Learn more at Queen of the Andes.

There was a lot of bird song in garden today. Birds I was able to identify by sight and sound included California Towhee, Bushtit, Red-tail Hawk, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Mourning Dove, Anna’s Hummingbird, Dark-eyed Junco and American Robin. There were many other bird sounds I was unable to ID.

Butterflies were also active. Most abundant were Pipevine Swallowtails and Cabbage White. I also saw a Buckeye  and others that will remain unnamed.

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