Butterflies of Islamabad - Clouded yellow butterfly

Another butterfly which i captured during my visit to Rose and Jasmine garden Islamabad was clouded yellow butterfly Colias croceus. It was sitting on the rose bush not on the flowers. Because roses are not good pollinators hence not attracting much butterflies. Roses of this garden were very ornamental though. I did not see this butterfly in lahore but it can be found in lahore i guess. Here is my picture i took:



This post is part of Macro monday so do visit http://lisaschaos.com/ for more macro shots
This post is also included in Mellow yellow monday. 

Giant Crape-myrtle, peacock flower and katsagon

There are lots of flowers in bignonia family which are ideal to the climate of lahore. Some of them are heat loving and flower profusely in hottest months in summer. Some of them are still blooming in monsoon. Let us have a look.
Giant Crape-myrtle with botanic name Lagerstroemia speciosa It is elder brother of common Lagerstroemia indica shrub, but it is a tree not a shrub. It flowers when only few flowers are blooming due to intense summer heat.


Lahore is full of these trees and they add beauty and bright colors. Flower color changes with age.


Another common and heat loving flower is peacock flower with botanic name Caesalpinia pulcherrima. Flowers for lots of summer months with bright orange flowers.


This one is a bignonia family tree with large leaves and yellow flowers. Common name is katsagon while botanic name is Fernandoa adenophylla


This post is featured at Lisa's Chaos so visit her blog for more gorgeous macro shots.

Sunbird on my terrace garden

Humming birds are not common in lahore, pakistan while sunbirds are common here. I did see a humming bird moth in Lawrence gardens but we will have to be content with sunbirds for now on. This sunbird is a regular visitor in my terrace garden. Mostly after seedspods. In the below pictures it is after spent flowers of senecio vine.




These spent flowers will be used probably for his nest although they are source of food maybe. Attracting sunbirds is very exciting and there is another blue one very pretty on my terrace often but very fast to be caught on camera. Will post soon as i defeat his pace.

Wild flowers of Punjab - Sodom apple, bindweed

This is Apple of sodom or calotrope with botanic name Calotropis procera is a wild flower of Punjab. It has succulent foliage and flowers in almost whole summer in open sun.


Bindweed with botanic name convolvulus arvensis. A very common weed in Punjab. A ground cover in full sun. Self sows. Foliage is different than that of morning glory.


Ipomoea nil chocolate. This is a type of Japanese morning glory with a color not very common. It is also called chocolate rose silk. These vines grow good in our extreme summer heat. I am growing more than 7 colors of morning glories this summer and will post pictures as soon as they flower.


This post is included in Garden bloggers bloom day, a gardening event on the 15th of every month at May Dreams Gardens