By Blog — Sep 10, 2025

2025-09-07 sf botanical garden visit

Visited SF botanical garden for reaping off the benefits of memership. Lots of findings!

red admiral butterfly

This time I got the opportunity to observe how a butterfly catching the nectars from flower one by one. It's a lot more interesting than just admiring the beauty of their wings, the color. This red admiral actually is coming to each flower, heads down, put its face into the tube of the pedals, which is perfectly aligned with the its mouth. Its attena are shiny, and sectioned, ended with a black dot in the end, like a cool guy.

Red amiral got its name due to ?. I read online that they migrated to warmer area such as Texas, Arizona, etc. But something is wrong here: butterfly as far as I remembered had an extreme short length lifespan, for instance, a mature adult only has 2 weeks for reproduce their babies! How would they be able to finish a huge journey back and forth? Answer is even more fascinating than I thought: the full cycles require two generations to finish:

First generation is hatched in northern area say CA bay area. in September the adult butterfly is heading south at Arizona.
They would lay eggs there and next generation migrate back to bay area.

The relay of the migration over generations are really an instinct based. So intesting!

How about butterfly migration in general? Single generation or multiple? How about monarch butterfly? See some AI answer, https://pastila.nl/?00cb5c1e/19c00a64330bb2be89b079e00aa16b86#1DqVN1L/vzwAu+gdoDkceQ==

India and Gondwana and Glacier

Earlier this year someone from India told me that she was confused why some train in their hometown is named Gondwana, related to antarctic and glacier. Today in the ancient plants garden, they have a good illustration of continent drift diagrams, showing clearly how india is separated from antarctic continent.

Hawk or Pelican

AI told me September is a good time to look for raptor migration in Hawk Hills. The best spot is now closed due to maintenance. I went to Battery Godfrey. I only saw 3 or 4 red tail, but tons of pelicans. They form a group and gliding back and forth near the bridge, along the coast line. Fly agile and gracefully.

Different sized, and colored. Clearly some are juveniles, but the color difference I am not sure: either entirely black or grey and white spot on the wings. Are they also pelicans? Not sure.

Monterey Cypress

You can't miss the golden gate majestic conifers along the roads. And I now finally know they are monterey cypress, the same species only live in a small area of monterey now near the coast, in the wild.

However, to anyone who had been 17 miles, and golden gate park, it's remarkable how different in size they are! 17 miles ones are gnarly, crooked and bent over. Golden gate park boys are well fed and grow upright very strong.

Belladona Lily

Common name naked lily as they don't have leaves when flowering. Blazing flower has vibrant color, shining brilliantly in late summer. I have seen them in drier area when cycling near woodside. Can't ignore them. 孤挺花的中文名也是很贴切的 the stalk is very strong and single stemed.

Belladona lily actuall has leaves in spring, but leavs would then wither and die, only a few month later then blossom happily.