Wikidgarden
LightNews LightNews
banner
wikidgarden.bsky.social
Wikidgarden
@wikidgarden.bsky.social
2.1K followers 4.2K following 1.5K posts
Destroying invasive plants, giving natives a chance to thrive. Enjoying 🦋 and plant chemistry. Wandering in hardwood hammocks in South Florida. ❤️ Art, lit, travel. Amateur in all.
Posts Replies Media Videos
wikidgarden.bsky.social
Headed home. 47F, Sunny in Atlanta. There are worse situations to be in today.
Heres to a future without the heavy scent of burning jet fuel.
Blue table blue sky orange drink long shadows
November 28, 2025 at 8:03 PM
wikidgarden.bsky.social
To walk in this forest is transporting. The huge, ancient trees produce such pure oxygen—and are so awe- inspiring—that a relatively small human breathing in their beauty is overwhelmed with joy.
#ThickTrunkTuesday
#MorneDiablotinNationalPark #Dominica #LesserAntilles
View up to the sky in a dense, leafy forest. The truck of an immense tree reaches to the sky.
November 25, 2025 at 6:46 PM
wikidgarden.bsky.social
☀️Butterflies—and birds—powered by the November sun today:
Northern Tropical Buckeye, Tropical Checkered Skipper, Cattle Egrets, White Peacocks.
(near Everglades National Park, Homestead entrance)
Perched on a white flower is a brown- gray butterfly with white marks across its forewings, orange stripes (as if for military rank) on its “shoulders,” and eyespots of different sizes—two on the forewing, two on the hind wing. Each eyespot shines blue in the center with a tawny outer ring edged in black. Lower wing edges have a wavy rick-rack pattern and a fringe of scales. Tiny butterfly with speckled with white on dark gray is perched on a blade of grass, antennae spread wide. Close to its darker body its scales appear long and furry. Its broad head and large eye are visible, as are its tiny suggestion of “tails.” Apparently it is freshly eclosed, as its wings are pristine. White birds with long necks and yellow beaks stand on a grassy, weedy bank, one with wings open. Three are warily looking toward the camera. Low in close-cropped weeds, two butterflies have landed. They are bright white with wavy, tawny markings and eyespots on their wings. Sun highlights their brown eyes, tawny legs and antennae. The larger butterfly’s wings look slightly crimped, as if she had trouble escaping her chrysalis. The smaller butterfly, likely a male trying to court the larger female, seems to have suffered a bird strike. Part of his lower wings are missing. No matter—the sun is shining, and the species must continue.
November 23, 2025 at 10:34 PM
wikidgarden.bsky.social
Today in Miami, eating federally endangered Aristolochia pentandra.
Face and forelegs of a black fuzzy caterpillar holding a stem.
November 21, 2025 at 6:00 AM
wikidgarden.bsky.social
Tree of souls
#ThickTrunkTuesday
Ficus aurea: In a Miami hammock remnant, a Field Biologist looks up in reverence. Of all tropical hardwood hammock trees, studies show this species best provides for migrant neotropical birds.
November 18, 2025 at 11:33 AM
wikidgarden.bsky.social
Maybe this is their mother? This was two days ago. She appears to be looking for the tenderest leaves for her babies to eat.
November 17, 2025 at 7:13 PM
wikidgarden.bsky.social
A beautiful day in the neighborhood gets more beautiful when you discover Atala eggs in your South Florida urban swale garden. edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/...

#NativePlants #Butterflies #Gardening #Rewild #Conservation
On a ridged green leaflet are 10 cream-colored eggs shaped like fat discs. Ornamented with spiky red-brown scales from their mother’s body, they are protected by Cycasin, a toxin sequestered from the host plant, Zamia integrifolia, North America’s only native cycad.
November 17, 2025 at 7:04 PM
wikidgarden.bsky.social
It a balmy 75°F, and the Keys Blackbead—Pithecellobium keyense—has decided to turn a Miami “landscape” into paradise.
Honeybees and a Hammock Skipper (rare in this hood) revel in a super-abundance of pinkish powderpuffs. #NativePlants #Naturalists #Rewild #Invertebrates #Butterflies #Gardening
November 14, 2025 at 3:22 PM
wikidgarden.bsky.social
In case you haven’t seen this article, it might be worth looking at. A physician friend shared it recently.
JCI The Journal of Clinical Investigation Anti inflammatory actions of glucagon-like peptide-1—based therapies beyond metabolic benefits. Chi Kin Wong, Daniel J. Drucker J Clin Invest. 2025;135(21):e194751. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI194751. Review Series
November 6, 2025 at 9:51 PM
wikidgarden.bsky.social
i.redd.it/male-versus-...
Monarch Butterfly male vs female comparison. The top image shows the male with thin black veins between orange wing cells plus an enlarged black dot (pheromone-emitting scales) on the inner hind wing. The bottom image shows the female with thicker black wing veins and no black spot on the inner hind wing vein.
November 4, 2025 at 7:54 PM
wikidgarden.bsky.social
The Faithful Beauty, a day-flying moth, in a Key Largo, FL, coastal hammock preserve today. Thanks to @rmj827.bsky.social for spotting, camera, lens, and 📸processing.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composi...

#Butterflies #Moths #Naturalists #NativePlants #Habitat
On dark green leaves rests what appears to be a butterfly—actually a moth. Its wings are black and spangled with brilliant red and white dots. Iridescent blue lights its abdomen and central wing surfaces. Its head and thorax are black dotted by white. Its spectacular appearance signals that it’s toxic. As a caterpillar, it fed on Devil’s Potato. 💀
November 3, 2025 at 1:33 AM
wikidgarden.bsky.social
If you fit into a curled leaf, it makes a dreamy wind shelter.
#SquirrelTreeFrog #Naturalists #Habitat #EvergladesNationslPark #Frogs #SoithFlorida
October 25, 2025 at 10:16 PM
wikidgarden.bsky.social
Today started rainy but turned beautiful (if breezy) for butterfly hunting. In its small, drab way, this Ocola Skipper drinking nectar stole my 💚. What a face.
#Butterflies #Habitat #Rewild #NativePlants #Insects
Surrounded by green leaves and blades of grass, at the lavender inflorescence of Porterweed, a small brown butterfly sits with proboscis extended. Its large, dark eye and wide, fuzzy head are oriented toward the viewer.
October 25, 2025 at 9:58 PM
wikidgarden.bsky.social
Ok—you may be too far North, but climate change(?). Here’s Chiococoa parvifolia in a dry/mostly shaded swale in Miami. It has a gentle mounding habit and this one has had beautiful fruit for over two months now:
Deep green leaves and sprays of small, white fruits on Keys Hammock Snowberry. The flowers were nice too—tiny yellow bells that in Key Largo hammocks are visited by the little Mimosa Yellow butterfly.
October 23, 2025 at 11:18 PM
wikidgarden.bsky.social
Hannah Arendt—on civil disobedience, totalitarianism, Eichmann as “the banality of evil”—lately all worth thinking about.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i...
Episode cover for podcast “In Our Time” from the BBC, October 23, 48 minutes, Hannah Arendt (Archive Episode)
October 23, 2025 at 1:22 PM
wikidgarden.bsky.social
Hope this Ficus counts for #ThickTrunkTuesday.
Deering Estate
Miami
Multi-trunked ficus tree dwarfing a reddish house in the background.
October 21, 2025 at 9:52 AM
wikidgarden.bsky.social
Mangrove habitat by Biscayne Bay, Miami.
October 20, 2025 at 1:14 PM
wikidgarden.bsky.social
And the same Longtailed Skipper photographed by @rmj827.bsky.social

#Butterflies #Wildlife #Gardening #Naturalists
#Miami #NativePlants
Poised on a green leaf is a drab butterfly with light forewing spots and long tails. Fringes on its wing edges are lighted by the sun. Its iridescent green shows along the back of its wide head.
October 13, 2025 at 10:15 PM
wikidgarden.bsky.social
Slo-mo of today’s Longtailed Skipper. 💚 It almost looks like a bird here.
#Butterflies #Wildlife #FlowerReport #Gardening #Naturalists
#Bloomscrolling #Miami #NativePlants
October 13, 2025 at 9:51 PM
wikidgarden.bsky.social
Today in our mostly native street-side swale: a Longtailed Skipper drinks from Pentas (exotic). Maybe it hosted on the invasive Desmodium I can’t bring myself to pull (?)
#Butterflies #Wildlife #FlowerReport #Gardening #Naturalists #Bloomscrolling #Miami #NativePlants
October 13, 2025 at 9:14 PM
wikidgarden.bsky.social
Is it possible for a people to value flowers more than the Dutch?
With the Blumenstilleben, flowered brocades, and Delftware vases inside the building, this October garden suggests not.
#Flowers #Bloomscrolling #Gardening #art #nature #Amsterdam #Rijksmuseum 🌷🇳🇱
October 4, 2025 at 2:46 PM
wikidgarden.bsky.social
At #TheRijksmuseum #bloomscrolling #Gardening
A gorgeous day in #Amsterdam 🇳🇱
Delicate magenta colored Anemones with frilly, pollen-filled stamens and yellow globe-shaped centers. Front facade of the Rijksmuseum and gardens lit by afternoon sun.
October 1, 2025 at 6:19 PM
wikidgarden.bsky.social
One for #ThickTrunkTuesday.
A poplar(?)
Whimsically, a tiny bird house has been placed high on the trunk.
#Beatrixpark #Amsterdam🇳🇱#nature #gardening #Naturalists
A massive tree just touched by morning sun. Its burly root flare and vertical bark ridges ascend to a high cluster of branches with verdant, fluffy leaves. A minuscule bird house sits high on the trunk.
September 30, 2025 at 6:41 AM
wikidgarden.bsky.social
Plus coffee.
Smiling man stands beside a cart offering coffee, fruit, juices, pastries: Sunday in the park. 🇳🇱
September 29, 2025 at 6:28 AM
wikidgarden.bsky.social
Glorious cool, foggy morning in an Amsterdam park—if only you could hear so much bird song, chatter, life.
Sun rays breaking through fog against blue sky, large trees, tall and short grasses. Sunlight on fog with dewy grasses in the foreground. Verdant trees and lawn lighted by morning sun through fog, a back-lit tree in the foreground casts a diagonal shadow. With dark brown centers, yellow-gold Rudbeckia (?) flowers glow against green leaves.
September 29, 2025 at 6:22 AM