Sunday, December 4, 2011

Butterflies of Lahore - Denaid Eggfly Butterfly

This is second post in the series of "Butterflies of Lahore" I am covering. Denaid Eggfly Butterfly with technical name Hypolimnas misippus is not a very common butterfly but not rare either. It is mostly found in gardens and you will not frequently see it in the streets. It is present in lahore almost whole summer. Here is the back view of the butterfly.
Denaid Eggfly Butterfly

It is mostly found on ground covers in my experience but i also captured it many times on mums. Very fast mover and not easy to capture but once it stays, it stays for a while and this is the time to capture its beauty. And the side view is much different and more beautiful as well.
Hypolimnas misippus

These shots were taken in Lawrence gardens lahore in summer of 2011. I could not find this butterfly in any other garden. The side view does imitate plain tiger butterfly though.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Flowers of PC Bhurban - Roses, lavender and Cotoneaster

This is the last post in the "Flowers of PC Bhurban" Series. The first two posts you can find here and here. This post took me a while to identify some flowers in the garden of PC bhurban. For those who do not know, PC bhurban is actually Pearl Continental hotel in the Bhurban area in murree hills of Pakistan. So here are the remaining flowers.
There were many roses in the PC bhurban garden and some i had never seen before. This one is identified as a rose. Very beautiful petals. Dortmund rose Here is the closer look at this beauty. Dortmund rose closeup Talking of roses, here is another rose, so different from the common red rose we have that i had to ask about the identity of this plant, A rose!!!!
rose in pc bhurban garden pink rose flower This one is some Hypericum species, most probably St John's wort. St John's wort This is Cotoneaster salicifolius, Willow-leaved Cotoneaster. A drought tolerant shrub blooming happily in the garden of the hotel. Cotoneaster salicifolius, Willow-leaved Cotoneaster
This one is probably some achillea most probably Achillea filipendulina but it is just a guess. Achillea filipendulina This is Red Valerian, Centranthus ruber. And last but not least is English lavender, Lavandula angustifolia. Butterflies were attracted to lavender flowers like crazy. In our plains, lavandula stoechas or french lavender is more successful than this one. Beauty and fragrance al there with the additional benefit of attracting some wild life. Lavandula angustifolia english lavender There is still one post remaining regarding the flowers of murree hills and nathia gali and that i will cover in the next post. Till then stay tuned.

For more beautiful flower posts from all around the world, visit Today's Flowers.
For more macro monday posts, visit Lisa's Chaos 

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Butterflies of Lahore - Plain tiger butterfly

Starting from this post, i am initiating a series of posts on butterflies of my city Lahore. There is already a post on butterflies of Islamabad here. I have few butterfly posts on butterflies of himalayas as well but right now i am starting with those of my own city lahore. All the shots are taken by me. The first one is Plain tiger butterfly Danaus chrysippus.


Plain tiger is probably the most common butterfly in urban cities like lahore. And it is also one of the easiest to capture because it is a slow mover. Not very fast so camera captures easily. You will find this one on roads, in gardens, everywhere. It is not fond of a specific plant, you will find it mostly on foliage. Here is the side shot of this butterfly. Remember there is not much of difference between the male and the female at least not to naked eye.


This butterfly is common in India, Pakistan and many other countries. One habit of this butterfly is that it spreads its wing so that full sun is at the back absorbing the heat of sun through its fully open wings and that is the time to capture it closely.


The next butterfly post would be on Common lime butterfly, another common butterfly of Lahore - Pakistan. This post is included in Macro Monday by Lisa's Chaos. So visit her blog for more macro shots.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Snail vine, vigna caracalla flowering in my terrace garden

Welcome to another edition of Macro monday. This is what is blooming right now in my garden.
 Snail vine finally in bloom. Very sweet fragrance.

You will find all 3 colors on this vine. White, then purple and last one yellow. Very heat tolerant vine.


I captured this gram blue butterfly on the flower of hyacinth bean vine. Very fast growing vine and a relative of snail vine.


For Macro monday, visit Lisa's Chaos

Winner of best photo blogger