Queen butterfly on Simpson’s rosinweed

Click for greater clarity and larger size.

Behold a queen butterfly, Danaus gilippus, on Simpson’s rosinweed, Silphium simpsonii. The butterfly outdoes the rosinweed here, but in the second month of this blog I showed a radiant picture of a similar species of rosinweed, Silphium radula, if you’d care to look back. And if you’re still in retro mode, you may enjoy revisiting last summer’s white rosinweed.

This picture of a queen butterfly is the third in a series I took at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center on July 23, and the first to remind me of the actress Butterfly McQueen.

© 2013 Steven Schwartzman