Lots of orange tip butterflies here in the Pennines too, on the lady's smock in the damp bits of the park.
Papi Jo, I agree in principle about botanical names, especially for cultivated plants. But common wild flowers like daisies and dandelions are so well known that maybe the "correct" name is less necessary for such plants - I'd need to look up the botanical name for daisy, and I only learnt Taraxacum officinale as part of my horticultural studies... and most people are happy to call an oak tree an oak. Where do we draw the line?
Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
What an excellent idea to "grow" butterflies with children. When I was at secondary school, aged about 11 or 12, our Natural Sciences teacher encouraged us to let the caterpillars we collected in the nearby fields loose on the classroom walls. They eventually turned into chrysalides which remained stuck to the walls for a certain time. We kept watch until the great day of their emergence. Since all our classes took place in the same classroom, the emergence might take place at any time, sometimes during the maths lesson. During the event, the teacher was required to keep silent, as we all watched in awe. Maybe that's when I started to get interested in wildlife, esp. insects.
The orange tip (Anthocharis cardamines) is one of my favourite butterflies. About 10 years ago I used to spot many of them in wild prairies where Cardamine (bittercress) was growing. Unfortunately they have become rarer and rarer. Spotted one specimen the other day, though. Here are some pics taken a few years ago.
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Papi Jo, I agree in principle about botanical names, especially for cultivated plants. But common wild flowers like daisies and dandelions are so well known that maybe the "correct" name is less necessary for such plants - I'd need to look up the botanical name for daisy, and I only learnt Taraxacum officinale as part of my horticultural studies... and most people are happy to call an oak tree an oak. Where do we draw the line?