Diario de julia_crean

The other day while deadheading the bee balms in my garden I noticed that they have a very nice aroma. The next day I was volunteering at the Pollinator Meadow in McNab Park and realized that the bergamot (purple) looked very similar to the bee balm in my garden. So... to the google! I learned that bee balm and bergamot are the same, they are both Monarda didyma. The name bee balm comes from the plants proclivity to attract bees, and the name bergamot is named due to the familiar aroma it shares with the bergamot citrus plant (Citrus bergamia). The botanist Dr Nicholas Mondares is the reason that bee balm is also called bergamot because they were the one who was reminded of the citrus aroma, bergamot. The Latin name for bee balm (Monarda didyma) was named after this botanist.

An interesting fact about Scarlet bee balm (Monarda didyma) is that it was used to make a tea for digestion, and since it grew by the Oswego river it would be called Oswego tea!

Today was my first day at Julie's butterfly garden! It is a very beautiful space and is definitely a major contributor to the biodiversity in her neighborhood and to all the people she gives away plants to. At Julie's we dug up common milkweed to give away, some of which will find a new home at the sanctuary that Esther the pig lives on. I learned that when a monarch butterfly finds a place to live, it will choose a place with milkweed and a place that it thinks females will be as well. Once it chooses a place it will patrol the area. It will usually not be bothered by smaller moths and butterflies however if a bigger butterfly such as a swallowtail enters the area it will chases it away. Also, if another male monarch arrives they will have a battle flying in the air, which may last hours, and until one of the males gets tired. Monarchs have even chased away birds! Milkweed is the host plant for monarchs so they are very important. When digging up the milkweed we had to make sure to get all the roots because if you put the root in water it will grow a plant.

Julie also told me about gypsy moths and how they actually do have predators such as racoons, squirrels and blue jays. Gypsy moths are an invasive species that were introduced because someone wanted to cross the European gypsy moths with North American silkworms. The person was trying to create a silk industry in North America. A question I have about the gypsy moths is what makes them invasive if they have predators? Well, gypsy moths are a problem because of their aggressive feeding habits. A single gypsy moth larvae can eat one square meter of leaves. The moths damage trees by ]defoliation because it makes the trees more susceptible to disease or infestations. The gypsy moths have around 500 host plants. One of their favorites being oak trees which is a very important tree for biodiversity. Oak trees are hosts to many butterflies and their acorns are a very important part of a deer's diet considering the acorns provide nutrition that is needed to survive winter.

Because Julie has such a biodiverse ecosystem there is a high predator count so when she is raising caterpillars she has to cover them up so that they don't get eaten.

Julie also told me about Asian Carp and how it was introduced because people who lived in Asia like that fish and wanted to bring it here. The Asian carp eat everything and can really damage an ecosystem. They've made it to the great lakes but they aren't in all of them yet. Something that contributed to the spread of Asian carp was flooding because it allowed them to enter into freshwater ecosystems. In the 1990s receding water after a major flood was the first warning sign that Asian carp are invasive because the dead fish that were left by the receding water consisted mostly of Asian carp, they outnumbered the fish nine to one.

Something I found interesting is the misconception people have about goldenrod. Goldenrod blooms at the same time as ragweed, so when people get allergies from the pollen they think it is from the goldenrod when actually goldenrod has heavy pollen that doesn't pollute the air. So it is the ragweed that people are actually being affected by.