genuine verdict

Obedient plant, originally uploaded by trekr.

It’s not.

Chiltepin, originally uploaded by trekr.

Chiltepins drying in the hot Texas sun.

Pipe-vine Caterpillar, originally uploaded by trekr.

Another interesting caterpillar. It should grow up to be a blue swallowtail.

Black Swallowtail, originally uploaded by trekr.

Last one, promise.

Black Swallowtail, originally uploaded by trekr.

By now, you are probably wondering if I have anything better to do than watch butterflies. Not so much 🙂 Anyway, if you look closely, you can see the chrysalis in the background. The white spot just where the butterfly’s eye should be is actually an empty egg. Look just below the chrysalis and you can see two other eggs.

Black Swallowtail, originally uploaded by trekr.

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Black Swallowtail, originally uploaded by trekr.

Both in the same photo! There was also an Chyrsalis just off to the side and I couldn’t manage the framing. Maybe tomorrow?

Chiltepin, originally uploaded by trekr.

Thomas Jefferson received Chiltepin seeds from Samuel Brown of San Antonio, Texas in 1812. He sowed them in plot XII and the Chiltepin is still grown in the Monticello Vegetable Garden today. Brown wrote Jefferson that the peppers were “essential to my health as salt itself”. Jefferson sent some of the seeds to Bernard McMahon, a Philadelphia nurseryman who marketed the plant as an ornamental which became known as McMahon’s Texas Bird Pepper. The Chiltepin was declared the native pepper of Texas in 1997 by House Concurrent Resolution No. 82, 75th Legislature, Regular Session.