The best way to find interesting things is to go out and look. I stayed right near this patch of mistflower for an hour this week, and found a wide variety of pollinators and a sneaky Carolina Anole hiding right in the blooms. Long-tailed Skippers seemed to love the patch too: it seems like each bloom had a skipper on it.
Mistflower
Mistflower, Conoclinium coelestinum, is a pretty blue wildflower related to sunflowers found at the edges of the forest in partial shade. It’s also called ageratum or boneset. We’ve found our patches full of pollinators, especially these long-tailed skippers.
Long-Tailed Skippers
Skippers are sort of a middle step between moths and butterflies with some characteristics of each. You can see that they have fuzzy bodies (and how about that iridescent green/blue?). Butterflies have little clubs on their antennae, but skippers have hooked antennae.
