Whats Happening in New Jersey Butterfly Gardens Right Now?
Submitted by NABA member Mary Anne Borge, June 27, 2009, Hunterdon County, NJ (southern NJ) This Gray Dogwood (Cornus racemosa) hosted a dazzling Summer Azure, offering the nectar of its blooming flowers as refreshment, and its buds as a place for the butterfly to lay her eggs. While I watched, a Red-banded Hairstreak also took advantage of the nectar offered by the flowers, but was a bit shy about being photographed. Gray Dogwood is a member of the Dogwood family, but unlike the more familiar Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida), it is a shrub, growing to a maximum height of 12-15 feet. The common name, Gray Dogwood, refers to the color of the bark, which is usually a light gray. Blooming for a period of a few weeks in late May to early June, its delicate creamy white flowers grow in convex clusters that are as tall as they are wide. Flowers successfully pollinated by butterflies or other insects will produce a round white berry-like fruit (a drupe) on bright red stalks later in the sea
