It can’t be a surprise to anybody that I haven’t been able to get out of my mind that blue-lavender flower from last Thursday. Today I went back to the Botany House in Balboa Park and found a botanist on staff who was happy to tell me all about it... and to point out the Monarch Butterfly cocoons hanging under some of the leaves. I got there a little late in the season to find caterpillars.

The plant is Calotropis gigantea, or crown plant, from India and Tibet. It is grown extensively in Thailand as well, but India and Tibet claim it as their own. Wherever it grows there are butterflies; and where there are butterflies, there have to be caterpillars and cocoons.




Something called complete metamorphosis is a magic involving a change from one creature into a completely different creature. It begins with the birth of a larval. The larval then transforms into a pupa.The pupa then builds a cocoon in which it hibernates. From the cocoon a beautiful butterfly...



The cocoons in these photographs will split open and a beautiful Monarch Butterfly will emerge and fly away. Wow!

If you live in San Diego, you can see these plants and their cocoons at both entrances to the Botany House in Balboa Park.