Backyard Nature Wednesday: Duranta erecta (Golden dewdrop)

Duranta erecta, popularly known as golden dewdrop plant, is a sprawling, tender evergreen shrub that can grow quite large. Some have reached tree-size as tall as 18 feet. The plant grows almost as wide as its height. It forms multi-stemmed clumps with branches that droop and trail. In addition, some of the bushes can get quite spiny, although some others develop no spines at all.

My shrubs - I have three - are still fairly young and they are three to four feet tall and still growing both vertically and horizontally. They've been covered in these showy flowers this summer. The flowers develop on racemes of up to six inches long. The individual flowers are tubular shaped and have five petals. They can be light blue to purple. There is also a white cultivar, but all of mine are blue or purple.

After a long period of bloom, the flowers fade and the golden berries that give the plant its popular name develop. These berries are devoured by several species of birds in fall and into winter - if they last that long.

But while the blooms last, the shrubs are visited daily by a variety of butterflies. Members of the swallowtail family, like the Tiger Swallowtail seen here, seem to particularly favor these blossoms.

It's not unusual for me to find several of the butterflies visiting the shrubs at the same time. Here are two Giant Swallowtails on the left and another Tiger Swallowtail on the right.

Golden dewdrop is not native to North America. It is found in Nature in the scrub and open woodlands in the West Indies and in Central to South America. It has been introduced to several areas along the Gulf Coast of the United States and has naturalized in parts of the Florida Keys and South Texas.

It is an easy plant to grow, at least in the environment of Southeast Texas, which must be not so different from some of the places where it is native. It requires practically zero care, except occasional pruning to keep it in shape, and it will appreciate a drink if it is a long time between rains. It does best in full sun but will also tolerate partial shade. If we get a cold winter when the temperature actually goes below freezing, then the shrub can die back to the ground, but it generally will come back in the spring.

I grow it with a number of other butterfly and hummingbird favorites, including Hamelia patens (hummingbird bush or Mexican firebush), Odontonema strictum (firespike), and Tecomaria capensis (Cape honesuckle), all staples of my habitat garden.

Poetry Sunday: Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver

How about we share another Mary Oliver poem? After all, you can never have too many of those. In this one, the poet seems to acknowledge that it is often hard to simply live in and enjoy the moment, perhaps because we are afraid it can't last. She urges us to give in to that moment and fully experience the joy. Although "much can never be redeemed, still, life has some possibility left." Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is no...

Poetry Sunday: Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney

My mother was a farm wife and a prodigious canner. She canned fruit and vegetables from the garden, even occasionally meat. But the best thing that she canned, in my opinion, was blackberry jam. Even as I type those words my mouth waters! Of course, before she could make that jam, somebody had to pick the blackberries. And that somebody was quite often named Dorothy. I think Seamus Heaney might have spent some time among the briars plucking those delicious black fruits as well, so he would have known that "Once off the bush the fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour." They don't keep; you have to get that jam made in a hurry! Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney Late August, given heavy rain and sun For a full week, the blackberries would ripen. At first, just one, a glossy purple clot Among others, red, green, hard as a knot. You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust ...

Poetry Sunday: Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman

You probably remember poet Amanda Gorman from her appearance at the inauguration of President Biden. She read her poem "The Hill We Climb" on that occasion. After the senseless slaughter in Uvalde this week, she was inspired to write another poem which was published in The New York Times. It seemed perfect for the occasion and so I stole it in order to feature it here, just in case you didn't get a chance to read it in the Times . Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman Everything hurts, Our hearts shadowed and strange, Minds made muddied and mute. We carry tragedy, terrifying and true. And yet none of it is new; We knew it as home, As horror, As heritage. Even our children Cannot be children, Cannot be. Everything hurts. It’s a hard time to be alive, And even harder to stay that way. We’re burdened to live out these days, While at the same time, blessed to outlive them. This alarm is how we know We must be altered — That we must differ or die, That we must triumph or try. ...

The Nature of Things

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