Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: Painted Lady

I'll never forget the first time I saw one of these flowers last year, when Steve and I were on a group hike. I saw it and stopped dead in my tracks, saying, "WOAH! What the heck is THAT!!!" These flowers, with their strangely-shaped, fiery orange petals, are unforgettable. They look as if they were dipped in paint, which is exactly why they got their name! :D This flower is one of about 200 species, one of which is the state flower of Wyoming ! :) Paintbrush plants are actually parasitic, living off the nourishment of roots from plants around them. They are also edible, and the flowers were often eaten by Native Americans as a condiment with salad greens. As well, it was used as a hair wash, a treatment for rhumatis, sexually transmitted diseases, and to enhance the immune system. And yet, the fact that this plant absorbs selenium easily makes the roots or green parts poisonous! Fascinating, isn't it?! :) If you would like to know more about this flower, Wiki has a great source here: Wiki: Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja) I've uploaded two other pictures today and I hope you'll visit them too! Thanks to all of you who have visited and have left comments and favorites! I try to go to all of your pages within a day or two and is a highlight for me to see your beautiful photography! :)

Butterflies at the Fair? YES! There was a special butterfly exhibit featuring Painted Lady and Monarch Butterflies, and you'd better believe I made a bee-line to this place the moment we got to the Fair! Visitors were allowed to be inside the enclosure with the butterflies where we could feed them nectar and watch them flying around and doing their thing. They also had dozens upon dozens of chrysalis' and I got to watch a Monarch butterfly emerge!!! It was an incredible sight to behold and I'll have pictures to show in a week or so! :) The Painted Lady butterfly is one of the most wide-spread species in the world, and can be found worldwide except on Antarctica and South America! Amazing! They are often raised in kindergarten and elementary classrooms to teach children about the life cycle of butterflies. In fact, if you are interested, there are many stores online that sell "butterfly kits" (and other types of insects and critters too!), and more searching will reveal that you can find many types of butterflies and moth caterpillars and adults for sale ! If you would like to know more about Painted Lady Butterflies, Wiki has a page here: Wiki: Painted Lady Butterflies (Vanessa cardui)

Another picture from the butterfly exhibit at the Jackson County Fair! I think it's holding feet up in front of its face but I'm not really sure...can anyone tell me? Painted Lady butterflies are in a group ("order") called Lepidoptera, which includes butterflies and moths. They can be found all over the world, except for Antarctica and in very dry deserts. There are currently 174,250 species named, with more discovered every year. Butterflies are an extremely successful insect and have been on this planet for millions of years; the oldest fossil was found in Dorset, UK, dating back 190 million years ago! Butterflies in their winged form have an average lifespan of only one or two weeks, but some generations of certain migratory butterflies, such as Monarchs, can live as long as eight months! If you would like to know more about butterflies, Wiki has a very nice page here: Wiki: Butterfly and here: Wiki: Lepidoptera

The butterfly exhibit at the Jackson County Fair was one of my favorite highlights and I got lots of great pictures of the Painted Lady and Monarch butterflies there. Here is a side view of a Painted Lady butterfly sitting on the edge of a cardboard box. In case you didn't get a chance to read about these butterflies before, here's a repeat of the information about them: The Painted Lady butterfly is one of the most wide-spread species in the world, and can be found worldwide except on Antarctica and South America! Amazing! They are often raised in kindergarten and elementary classrooms to teach children about the life cycle of butterflies. In fact, if you are interested, there are many stores online that sell "butterfly kits" (and other types of insects and critters too!), and more searching will reveal that you can find many types of butterflies and moth caterpillars and adults for sale ! If you would like to know more about Painted Lady Butterflies, Wiki has a page here: Wiki: Painted Lady Butterflies (Vanessa cardui)

How many of you have wanted to take pictures of butterflies but you've never gotten the chance? Butterflies are usually very skittish and getting pictures can be a lot about luck. It's hard to get close enough before they fly away, but once in a while they hold still long enough that you may be able to take a picture! However, did you know that there are butterfly farms and houses, as well as special gardens open to the public that are specialized to attract butterflies?! In the United States, there are special butterfly establishments listed in most statws, and many are listed in other countries in the world as well. In these places, visitors often get to walk into the butterfly exhibit and spend a specified amount of time there. It's a perfect opportunity for photographers to take lots of images of species they have may never seen before, and perhaps their very first butterfly pictures! I was so excited when I found out about this butterfly exhibit at the Jackson County Fair, and I had a fantastic time! A word of advice if you want to visit one of these places: be sure to bring your flash or at least your tripod! I didn't bring either and was horrified when I discovered how dark it was inside the exhibit. The only reason my pictures turned out at all is because my Canon 5D Mk II features ISO up to 6400, and I have an Photoshop filter called Topaz DeNoise which does an excellent job. Otherwise I would have been out of luck! If you would like to find out if there's a butterfly establishment where you live, here are some links for you! The Butterfly Website: Butterfly Gardens and Exhibits The Butterfly Site: Butterfly Houses, Farms and Gardens Explored on August 15, 2012. Highest placement at #38.

The Butterfly Adventures exhibit at the Jackson County Fair was a great experience for me, and I could have stayed there for hours taking pictures! Alas, I was with my husband and eventually he dragged me out by my ear, but I got many wonderful pictures, including this one! Have you ever held a butterfly? They feel very strange as they crawl around, and I didn't blame the young child in the exhibit for shrieking every time a butterfly landed on her! I'm 47 and I like insects a lot, but I still have to resist the urge to flail wildly if I feel a large insect crawling on me! The Painted Lady butterfly is one of the most wide-spread species in the world, and can be found worldwide except on Antarctica and South America! Amazing! They are often raised in kindergarten and elementary classrooms to teach children about the life cycle of butterflies. In fact, if you are interested, there are many stores online that sell "butterfly kits" (and other types of insects and critters too!), and more searching will reveal that you can find many types of butterflies and moth caterpillars and adults for sale !