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I was delighted to find two different native species of perennial Physalis volunteering among the flowers at the Lakeside Commons Educational Gardens. It was a wonderful opportunity to get a few comparison shots of key identification features.

Physalis heterophylla is a common Physalis species in Kentucky and throughout the eastern US. It is perennial, and at a glance, looks softly fuzzy. Closer examination shows long, dense, divergent (outward-pointing rather than pressed against the plant) hairs on stems, petioles, and pedicels. These hairs are usually (but not always) glandular, with knobby ends full of chemicals. The flowers usually have dark brown, "feathery" spots in the throats that bleed out into the veins, like someone used a watercolor brush to spread them.

After the first two photos of the species, shots compare P. heterophylla to P. longifolia, our most common Kentucky species. Of the two, Physalis longifolia generally has more slender leaves. It has fewer, shorter hairs that are antrorse (pressed against the plant and pointing forward or up-the-stem) and not glandular. The flowers also have dark spots, but they are usually "smudgy" -- like someone used chalks or pastels to color them in -- rather than "feathery", and don't strongly bleed out into the surrounding veins.

The last two photos show where P. heterophylla's common name, the "Clammy Groundcherry", comes from. Clammy refers not to being cold, but to being sticky, as you might imagine a moist amphibian could be. The chemicals in the glandular hairs, which cover almost the entire surface of the plant, are a bit gummy in addition to being toxic, and the soft, sticky leaves will stick to your hand or your jeans if you press gently. This is not a feature meant to be amusing to passing botanists, but is an anti-herbivore defense.

I was delighted to find two different native species of perennial Physalis volunteering among the flowers at the Lakeside Commons Educational Gardens. It was a wonderful opportunity to get a few comparison shots of key identification features.

In my experience, Physalis longifolia is the most common Physalis species in Kentucky, and probably in the eastern US. It is a perennial, and at a glance, looks hairless. Closer examination will show short, sparse, antrorse (forward or up-the-stem pointing) hairs on the stems, petioles, and pedicels. The flowers usually have very dark and relatively solid spots in the throats. I usually call this spot type "smudgy" -- it's like someone used chalks or pastels to color in spots.

After the first three photos of the species, I have shots comparing P. longifolia to P. heterophylla, our next most common species in Kentucky. Of the two species, Physalis heterophylla generally has broader leaves. It also has more and longer hairs that are divergent (stick out straight rather than being pressed against the plant) and they are usually glandular (with knobby little ends full of sticky, toxic chemicals). The flowers of P. heterophylla also have dark spots, but they are usually more "feathery" than the spots of P. longifolia and bleed out into the veins of the flower, like someone used a watercolor brush to spread them.

If you look at the other photos (albeit the important order may be unfortunately scrambled), you'll see the amazing behavior of this bird in choosing an artificial lure (a twig), that in my opinion somewhat resembles an earthworm, somewhat desiccated. The bird drops the twig into the water and then waits and watches. What it pulled out of the water may have been a bit of vegetation with a fish-like shape. In any case, it got dropped immediately. Still interesting to see the display of strategy.

This was one of my favorite parts of the camp -- north of the biodiversity park. Several jebels (hills) here, and lots of neat critters and plants. Spooked the fox here too! :)
https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/sambiology/90830-trip-to-middle-east-wow

Photo 1:
First Meal
I had seen the egg with baby showing in the morning. In the early evening I checked again & found a hatchling. The first meal a newly hatched caterpillar has, is its own egg. And this cutie was happily munching away. I gathered a few fresh saucer magnolia leaves and put the dried egg leaf on top of one so it would have fresh food when ready.
Photo 2:
Little Devil Has Horns
I'm guessing the horns are meant to scare off predators but I think they are kind of cute. Making good progress on that egg.
Photo 3:
Swallowtail Hatchling
I left this one uncropped so you can see how tiny it is. I have a papertowel on the bottom of the butterfly habitat to keep moisture levels down. And plenty of fresh leaves available. When I went to bed, the baby was still eating the egg.
Unfortunately, the next morning, it was dead. Egg was gone but the baby never moved on to the fresh leaves. No evidence of any disease but it might have been parasitized before I brought the egg inside. I have no way of knowing. I am grateful for what I did get to see and hopeful for another chance someday. This species might be more difficult to raise than monarchs, queens and tersa sphinx with which I've had success.
Observation of the ready to hatch egg is here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/83947025
Observation of the female laying said egg is here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/83801208

Ready To Hatch
After seeing the swallowtail laying eggs, I searched both my saucer magnolia trees. I was only able to find one egg & it was on the leaf I photographed the butterfly actually laying it. No clue why just 1 egg. It was green when I found it. I brought it inside to my butterfly habitat. I have raised many monarchs so thought I'd try with this one.
6 days later the egg looks like this. No longer green, it is translucent & you can see the tiny caterpillar inside.

This is the photo of the butterfly actually laying this egg: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/83801208

Lifer! Lucky! Grateful!
I decided to go on a random birding drive without a specific spot in mind. 60 miles later and after stopping at railway crossings, gas station and several detours to click kestrels and other birds (separate posts), I was on a off-beat side road where I didn't miss spotting this large bird at 5:30pm. I was delighted to see a barred owl for the first time! I was there at the right time - how lucky!
Today, nature rewarded my 3 month old wish to see an owl! Happy with the quick turnaround! Grateful!
The owl and I exchanged few stares before it took off.

First two pics show two species for comparative purposes.

Specimen on right: Note V-shaped base of flower, less dense branching, longer/narrower petals compared to Amphiachris (left; https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/34926032).

These specimens were growing adjacent to one another in the same soil type (a silty, firm sandy loam).

Source: http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=ZAHI2.

Note: According to Flora of NC Texas, twigs and leaf rachises densely to sparsely spreading-pubescent (latter extreme is the common form in nc TX); leaflets with shallow, rounded teeth. When I zoom in on the closeup photo of the leaflets, those are the characteristics that I see.