Moth on dinner

[Bone2stone]

One of the best nature pics I have taken.
Out on hunt, no fossils so I took a photo with me instead.
I did manage to leave a few footprints though.
Name of moth escapes me but I did not want to disturb his dinner so I did not bother him further.

I think the common name for this particular flowering bush is the "Japanize" lantern.
They grow wild here but are not indigenous to the area.

Jess B.

[G10+]

Wow !, that's awesome..... when did u take that pic? Do y'all still have flowers blooming down their ? Thanks for the photo !

[Havenhunter]

I believe that's a Wild hibiscus that moth has taken a liking to. They grow in wetlands & moist woodlands.

[Bone2stone]

Wow !, that's awesome..... when did u take that pic? Do y'all still have flowers blooming down their ? Thanks for the photo !

Spring in Texas brings on some spectacular arrays.
Right now the spider lillys are just dying out.

[Bone2stone]

I believe that's a Wild hibiscus that moth has taken a liking to. They grow in wetlands & moist woodlands.

Right some call them "wild" hibiscus.
The lantern like seed pods is the part we refer to.
Upper right hand side of pic "lantern".
Wet lands is right, down right soggy there till you get past the old mill falls in Grand Prairie Tex.

[Ron Kelley]

Hey Jess, I always enjoyed photographing the local wildflowers and that one is a real beauty. Good Shot.

[taxidermist01]

Jess, That is a really good picture. I can't tell for sure from the directly overhead shot but is it possibly some type of Skipper? Either way, very nice picture.

[Bone2stone]

Moth did not stay long.
He finished his dinner and went elsewhere.
Did not bother introducing himself. (LOL)

Skipper is a name we are all familiar with.
Dolls, fish, Gilligan's Island......

[painshill]

Beuatiful pic Jess. The plant is of the hibiscus family... it's the halberdleaf rosemallow (Hibiscus laevis).

[Bone2stone]

Thanks Roger,
I never bothered to find out it's specie name.
I was satisfied with the Lantern.
Now that I know I will place name with pic.
Nice to know someone with such a broad spectrum of knowledge.

Question: Have your ears been burning?
Your name kept popping up in a few discussions lately.

[Guest]

Wild hibiscus varieties grow in eastern VA, are easy to transplant or grow from seed--LOVE the blossoms

...as a test, can anyone tell me the name of this flowering plant, below?--the Yaqui Indians called it yerba del diablo

[Bone2stone]

Not a clue but that is gorgeous!!
Herb of the Devil?

It is commonly called jimsonweed--I grow is as a screening hedge for the summer/fall months--very attractive

ethnographer/anthropologist Carlos Castenada wrote of this plant--the Devil's Herb--it's use by Yaqui brujo Don Juan (Castenada's mentor) as a means of discovering secrets, involved the making a paste it's root, smearing it over one's face, and a pair of lizards--one with eyes sewn shut, the other it's mouth sewn shut...

[Bone2stone]

Hey Jess, I always enjoyed photographing the local wildflowers and that one is a real beauty. Good Shot.

I was fortunate to have gotten this photo when I did.
Not only did my camera go capoot!!
The city of Grand Prairie took out the old mill dam and re-sculpted the entire area.
That area was a hidden haven for a small green belt surrounded by industrial complex.
Some lodge pole cedars 80-100+ feet tall!!! Was one of the attractions plus some nice artifacts nearby.
Lots of wild flowers scattered down both sides of creek gone.
Nice neighborhood covered over one of my artifact sites and industrial complex nearby now.
Area just BOOM there one week gone the next.

I have a site in Ft Worth I will venture to in the spring just for the wildflowers and fossils.
More than 30 species of wildflowers there including a species of Digitalis or foxglove.
Some guys won't admit to admiring flowers some do.

BTW: I took several photos of this flower and more but this one was the best.
Got da bug in it.

Jess B.

[painshill]

Jimsonweed (Datura stramonium and eight other species) is a nasty thing. Together with the closely related genus Brugmansia (seven species) these plants contain dangerous amounts of tropane alkaloids… principally atropine, hyoscyamine, and scopolamine. They were once all under a single genus but Brugmansia is now treated as a separate taxonomy and distinguished by the fact that it has a woody habit, making shrubs or small trees, and the flowers hang down rather than point upwards. The various common names such as hell's bells, devil’s trumpet, devil’s weed, devil’s cucumber, locoweed etc are often used interchangeably across both genera.

Brugmansia was native to South America and Datura was native to the north. Neither genus is native to Europe but Datura has become a naturalised weed in the UK and Brugmansia is frequently grown as a decorative container plant.

The Zuni used Datura as an analgesic when setting broken bones, but tropane alkaloids are powerful hallucinogens with a fatal dose that’s only slightly higher than the medicinal dose. They also induce delirium, submissive compliance and subsequent amnesia. Those effects hit the headlines here in the UK a couple of months ago after Chinese gangs operating in France began using dried powdered flowers (believed to be Brugmansia) as a mugging aid… largely targeting tourists in Paris. Apparently they were blowing the dust in the faces of victims. In at least one case the victim was then easily persuaded to hand over her cash, credit cards and PIN numbers as well as leading the criminals to her home and handing over more valuables. Afterwards she had only a vague recollection of the events.

If you type "Datura" into the search engine at the link below, you'll find a whole host of documented Native American usages for these plants:

http://herb.umd.umich.edu/

[Guest]

Great post! Thanks for the link, too!

[Hoss]

When I toured the Frank H. McClung Museum in Knoxville with Orari and Kyflintguy last moth Orari pointed out a pipe and said when that pipe was found it had residue inside from tobacco and jimson weed.