This is a zoomed in photo of the flowers of a common garden herb. Can you guess what it is? * I've grown it for years but never noticed how pretty the flowers and seedheads are until now.
This is a Luna moth (Actius luna), also known as the American moon moth. One morning last week it was perched above the front entrance of our school. I mentioned it to the principal and a couple of teachers, but no one else seemed too impressed. That's okay, because when my little crew of four friends made their morning stop by the office to say hi, I took them out to see it and they were.
A couple of extra kids tagged along, about six in all, and they ooh'ed and ahh'ed over its beauty. Then I dropped a fun fact about Luna moths: the adult moth doesn't have a mouth or a digestive system! It lives its adult life entirely on the energy it stored as a caterpillar. Of course, its adult life is only about a week, but still. The kids all loved it. When I sent them on to class, most of them hugged me, and sweet Emogene said, "Thank you for teaching us something cool!" That made my day.
*Flat Leaf Parsley
9 comments:
I enjoyed hearing this sweet story of you teaching students (and me!) about the Luna moth. How lucky they are to have you at their school!
I was going to guess that it was dill. It is wonderful to teach kids something and they appreciate it! Great photos.
What a beautiful story about the children's reaction to the Luna Moth. So different than the adults'.
Jennifer thanks for teaching us adults something cool too! I love your photos here, definitely quality over quantity.
I did think of parsley, but didn't know it was the flat leaf variety :-) Dill was my second guess.
Lovely story about the moon moth! I think Kay (Georgia Girl with an English Heart) wrote about this particular species some time in the past, or was it an earlier post of yours? Anyway, I knew about the "foodless" adult life and find the thought both sad and scary.
It’s wrong but it looks like elderflower
I had no idea a parsley flower looks like that. And I had no idea luna moths only live for a week. (We don't have them here in the UK but I remember seeing them in Florida.) So I've learned new things too!
I hope children still want to learn and find this 'cool'
I think those children will remember their little visit to see the luna moth. Maybe you should have been a teacher rather than the school's financial guru. By the way, before reading this blogpost I was not even aware of the existence of luna moths.
Post a Comment