ROSALYNN CARTER BUTTERFLY TRAIL

Rosalynn Carter Butterfly Trail at Lake Lure, NC

From roses to succulents, pollinator gardens to art installations, the Flowering Bridge at Luke Lure, in the mountains of western North Carolina, is a wonder of nature and testament to the volunteers who turned an abandoned bridge into a beautiful floral walkway.

The Lake Lure Flowering Bridge is a stop along the Rosalynn Carter Butterfly Trail, which begins in Plains, Georgia, at the home of President and Mrs. Jimmy Carter. The mission of the trail is to promote the full life cycle of butterflies common in this area with a special emphasis on the monarch.

Monarch butterfly.

When Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter learned of the struggling Monarch Butterfly population and threatened migration from North America to Mexico, she called on her neighbor and friend Annette Wise for advice on planting the right native plants in her garden.  When friends and neighbors in Plains learned what she was doing, they wanted to provide habitat in their gardens to help pollinators. Eventually, a "trail" started of butterfly gardens one house at a time, one church at a time, one library, one state, and so on.

The more butterfly gardens that exist, the greater the population of Monarch Butterflies, which have been so threatened for the past several decades primarily due to the removal of milkweed plants from farms and properties.  Monarch butterflies need milkweed on which to lay their eggs. Otherwise, the cycle of life for butterflies ends.  All pollinators benefit from native nectar and host plants. Find out more about the relationship between monarchs and milkweed at my earlier post on this blog.

On an informational board at the beginning of the bridge is a panel describing common butterflies of the area.

I visited the Flowering Bridge and learned about the Rosalynn Carter Butterfly Trail on a trip to North Carolina in August. I was pleased to see information about the Painted Lady Butterfly, the subject of my book BUTTERFLIES IN ROOM 6.  It was a rainy day and I didn’t see any butterflies, but I am sure that when the sun comes out, the garden will be full of them, feeding on nectar produced by the abundance of flowers.

You can read more about my visit to the Lake Lure Flowering Bridge at my travel blog The Intrepid Tourist.

All Text and Photos copyright Caroline Arnold

MILKWEED AND MONARCHS

Monarch butterfly on a milkweed plant in northern Wisconsin.

Look along a roadside, in a vacant lot, or in an abandoned country field, and you will probably see milkweed, a tall plant with broad leaves, thick stems and pink, yellow or purple flowers. If you look closely, you might find a monarch butterfly sipping nectar. Many insects make milkweed plants their home. They eat the nectar, sap, leaves, stems, roots, and seeds. You may also have milkweed plants, also called butterfly weed, in your garden.

Monarch caterpillar on a milkweed plant in my garden.

Milkweed gets its name from the white sap inside its stem. Poisonous chemicals are in the sap. Most plant-eating animals, such as cattle or deer, do not eat milkweed because it tastes bad. But monarch butterfly caterpillars are able to eat milkweed sap and the poison does not hurt them. A little bit of the poison becomes part of their bodies and helps protect them from birds and other predators. Predators learn to recognize monarchs by their distinctive black and orange colors and avoid them because they taste bad.

Female monarchs lay their eggs on milkweed leaves and when the eggs hatch, the tiny caterpillars eat the leaves. After a few weeks, when the caterpillars are about two inches long, they stop eating, attach themselves to a leaf and cover themselves with a green shell called a chrysalis. Inside the chrysalis, the caterpillar, now called a pupa, slowly transforms into a butterfly. After about two weeks, the beautiful butterfly emerges and the cycle of life begins again. (For a previous post with more about metamorphosis and a photo of a monarch chrysalis, click HERE.)

Milkweed pods in the fall. (Illustration by Caroline Arnold)

In the fall, monarch butterflies fly to their winter homes and milkweed flowers turn into seed pods. At first, the crescent shaped pods are soft and green. As the seeds grow inside the pod, the outside becomes hard and brown. When the seeds are ripe, the pod cracks open and the seeds spill out. The wind catches the the fluffy seeds and they are carried away, floating like tiny helicopters. Some of the seeds fall to the ground. In the following spring they will grow into new milkweed plants, providing homes for a new generation of monarchs.

Monarch butterflies depend on milkweed. In recent years, the disappearance of milkweed in many rural areas as a result of development has had a deleterious effect on monarch butterflies and their numbers have plummeted. You can learn about planting milkweed in your area to help monarch butterflies at this NWF website.

In my book, Butterflies in Room 6, about a kindergarten class raising painted lady butterflies, you can learn more about butterfly development.

For a fascinating article about the role of color as it relates to how well monarchs fly, click HERE.

BEDTIME STORY JAM: Author Visit at Westwood Elementary School, Los Angeles, CA

Banner displaying participating authors' books welcomed families to the Bedtime Story Jam

Last Friday evening the children of Westwood Charter Elementary in Los Angeles, California, came to school dressed in their pajamas ready to listen to stories from me and nine other children’s book authors as part of the school's annual Bedtime Story Jam. The goal of the event is promoting literacy and inspiring young story tellers and writers. In between sessions the children ate milk and cookies and browsed for books at the book fair in the library.

My presentation of Butterflies in Room 6 was in Room 4

This was my third time to participate in this fun celebration of reading. I had two groups of very enthusiastic children and their parents in my room. I showed slides, read my book Butterflies in Room 6, shared my butterfly growing supplies and samples of butterfly eggs and chrysalises, and signed books.

My butterfly habitat, caterpillar container, and samples showing butterfly development

I thank Shelby, my volunteer room host, for helping me to set up, introducing me, and for making sure that everything ran smoothly. Shelby’s aunt, who I have known for many years at the library at Palms Middle School, was also there and it was great to catch up on library news.

A young helper is demonstrating my Monarch Butterfly hand puppet.

I also thank Angie Rowe and Patricia Maynard and the Bedtime Story Jam committee for inviting me and organizing this festive event. Afterward they sponsored a reception on the library patio for the authors-- a wonderful chance to relax, chat with other authors and enjoy delicious food. And I thank Mrs. Nelson’s Book Fair Company for supplying my books for the event. I was pleased to see that so many had already been purchased by the night of the Story Jam.

Bedtime Story Jam banner

During the course of the evening I saw several families I knew and enjoyed meeting many other students and parents. Westwood Charter is one of my neighborhood schools and it is always a pleasure to be part of a local event.

WHAT IS A CHRYSALIS? Learning about Butterflies

Chrysalis of a Painted Lady butterfly, just before the butterfly is ready to emerge. The caterpillar's shed skin is still attached at the top.

A butterfly has four stages of life-- egg, caterpillar, pupa, and butterfly. The pupa is covered by a hard shell called a chrysalis. It protects the pupa as the pupa changes, or metamorphosizes, into a butterfly.

How do you pronounce chrysalis?
(KRIS-uh-lis)
What is the plural of chrysalis?
More than one chrysalis is chrysalises or chrysalides (kri-SAL-i-deez)

What is the origin of the word chrysalis?
It comes from the Latin word chrysallis which means gold-colored pupa of a butterfly and from the Greek word khrusos which means gold.

Monarch butterfly emerging from its chrysalis (at the Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh, NC)

Each kind of butterfly has a different color and shape to its chrysalis.The chrysalis of the monarch butterfly has a ring of gold colored spots that make it look like it is wearing a gold necklace. Perhaps a chrysalis like that inspired the name.

Empty chrysalis, after the Painted Lady butterfly has emerged.

In my book, BUTTERFLIES IN ROOM 6, you can see the chrysalises of painted lady butterflies. They are brown. But the butterflies that emerge have beautiful black and orange wings.