Fragrant Water-lily

You’d have to swim or wade your way over to test if it’s actually fragrant, though.

This is a fragrant water-lily, or Nymphaea odorata. It’s also known as the American white waterlily, the white water lily (note the three different spellings of waterlily), and beaver root, although it’s muskrats that occasionally eat their stems, not beavers. Muskrats do look quite like beavers, the spellings of waterlily are nearly the same, and lilies and lotuses are evidently similar enough to get mixed up — the blue (or Egyptian) lotus, the national flower of both Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, isn’t a lotus, but a waterlily. These colloquial names are a bit of a mess…

Photo taken: Jul. 4, 2021

Silver-spotted Skipper

Its eyes are satisfyingly smooth~

This is a silver-spotted skipper, or Epargyreus clarus. Looking at the linked page, there are some images of the caterpillar stage (image 1, image 2), which is a vivid bright green, but I’m more interested in what’s going on with that giant reddish bulb of a head. And where do the black eyes come from in that head?

Photo taken: Aug. 1, 2021

Small White

*slurp*
I wonder what nectar tastes like… Probably just liquidy honey?

This is Pieris rapae, better known by different names depending on what continent you live on. For Europe, it’s “small white.” For North America, it’s “cabbage white” or “cabbage butterfly.” Some combine those two for “small cabbage white.” For New Zealand, it’s “white butterfly.”

Photo taken: Sept. 6, 2020

Common Grackle

It’s a bit late for Valentine’s flowers, isn’t it?

This is a common grackle, or Quiscalus quiscula. They make good use of natural insect repellents, so maybe these flowers have repellent properties?

Photo taken: May 16, 2021

Redbuds

I feel like I should work on these shots more, but spring provides plenty of opportunities!

This flowers are from the redbud, or Cercis canadensis.

Photo taken: May 2, 2021