Sunday, November 10, 2013

ANOLES AND ANGELS FOR YOU! (GOODBYE PRINCE ANOLE PHOTO BLOG)

Hi Everybody!!
It seems like just yesterday Prince Anole~ was emerging from his deep winter sleep. Here it is time for him to return to hibernation for the cold winter. As we all go inside from the icy chill, we take with us our fond memories of Spring and Summer to relive in retrospect over a cup of hot cocoa by the warm fire. I encourage You to open a Google Photo Album and upload your sunny pics to remember and to share. Lonely Days are gone! You just need your Gmail account. I invite you to browse through my Albums and enjoy the Great Outdoors from inside. We say goodbye to Prince Anole as he heads to his winter home underground. He will go down in these History Records as the only Anole of Royal Bloodlines. My Picasa Editing Program has discontinued the "Crown Option" as well as the "Santa Hats" I usually put on the buzzards at Christmas. (I was probably the only nut who used these options)! So, Goodbye Prince Anole, the little green Ambassador of Peace. Below you will find links to the photostudies and info on Anoles and Angel Trumpets. Enjoy!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolina_anole

Carolina anole

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Carolina anole (Anolis carolinensis) is an arboreal lizard found primarily in thesoutheastern United States and some Caribbean islands. Other common names include the green anole, American anole and red-throated anole. It is also sometimes referred to as the American chameleon due to its ability to change color from several brown hues to bright green. While many kinds of lizards are capable of changing color, anoles are closely related to iguanas^[2] and are not true chameleons. The Carolina is a small lizard; male adults are usually 15 cm (5.9 in) long in adulthood, about half of which is its tail, and it can weigh from 3–7 g (0.11–0.25 oz). Exceptionally, these anoles will grow up to 20 cm (7.9 in) in length.^[3]^[4]^[5] Anolis carolinensis is part of the carolinensisseries of anoles.

Carolina anole

Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)^[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Family:	Polychrotidae
Genus:	Anolis
Species:	A. carolinensis

Distribution[edit]

This species is native to North America, where it is found mainly in the southeastern parts of the continent. Anoles are most abundant on the Atlantic Coastal Plains in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, and Georgia, and the Gulf Coast in Alabama,Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas and have been found as far north as southernTennessee and southeastern Virginia. The species has been introduced into Hawaii and the Ogasawara Islands. In 2012, there were sightings of the green anole in the San Diegoregion of southern California.^[6]

Behavior[edit]

Anole licking

Green anole eating a moth

Anoles are territorial creatures. Some have even been witnessed fighting their own reflections in mirrored glass. Stress in an anole can be identified by several symptoms, to include chronic lethargy and persistent black semicircles behind its eyes. Like many lizards, anoles display autotomic tails, which when broken off continue to move. This hopefully distracts the predator and helps the anole to escape.

Anoles also display curiosity. A healthy lizard usually has a good awareness of its surroundings. The male is very territorial and will fight other males to defend its territory.^[7]The other male is frequently an introduced and invasive brown anole (Anolis sagrei). When browns first immigrated to the United States in the early 1970s,^[8] the Carolinas ceded their ground-level territories and were relegated to a very different ecosystem high in the treetops. On occasion a more aggressive Carolina may be seen closer to the ground and in competition with the browns.

Male anole with extended dewlap, used to court females and to exert dominance over territory

The Angel's Trumpet:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brugmansia

Brugmansia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Brugmansia

Brugmansia 'Feingold'
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Asterids
Order:	Solanales
Family:	Solanaceae
Subfamily:	Solanoideae
Tribe:	Datureae
Genus:	Brugmansia Pers.

Brugmansia is a genus of seven species of flowering plants in the family Solanaceae. Their large, fragrant flowers give them their common name of angel's trumpets, a name sometimes used for the closely related genus Datura. Brugmansia are woody trees or shrubs, with pendulous, not erect, flowers, that have no spines on their fruit. Daturaspecies are herbaceous bushes with erect (not pendulous) flowers, and most have spines on their fruit.^[2]

Description[edit]

Brugmansia are large shrubs or small trees, with semi-woody, often many-branched trunks. They can reach heights of 3–11 m (10–36 ft). The leaves are alternately arrangedalong the stems, generally large, 10–30 cm (4–12 in) long and 4–18 cm (2–7 in) across, with an entire or coarsely toothed margin, and are often covered with fine hairs. The name "angel's trumpet" refers to the large, pendulous, trumpet-shaped flowers, 14–50 cm (6–20 in) long and 10–35 cm (4–14 in) across at the opening. They come in shades of white, yellow, pink, orange, green, or red. Most have a strong, pleasing fragrance that is most noticeable in the evening. Flowers may be single, double, or more.

Distribution and habitat[edit]

Brugmansia are native to tropical regions of South America, along the Andes from Venezuela to northern Chile, and also in south-eastern Brazil.^[2] They are grown as ornamental container plants world-wide, and have become naturalized in isolated tropical areas around the globe, including within North America, Africa, Australia, and Asia.^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]

Ecology[edit]

Most Brugmansia are fragrant in the evenings to attract pollinating moths.^[7] One species lacking scent, the red-flowered Brugmansia sanguinea, is pollinated by long-billed hummingbirds.^[2] Brugmansia have two main stages to their life cycle. In the initial vegetative stage the young seedling grows straight up on usually a single stalk, until it reaches its first main fork at 80–150 cm (2.6–4.9 ft) high. It will not flower until after it has reached this fork, and then only on new growth above the fork. Cuttings taken from the lower vegetative region must also grow to a similar height before flowering, but cuttings from the upper flowering region will often flower at a very low height.^[2]

One interesting example of plant/animal interaction involves the butterfly Placidula euryanassa, which uses Brugmansia suaveolensas one of its main larval foods. It has been shown that these can sequester the plant's tropane alkaloids and store them through thepupal stage on to the adult butterfly, where they are then used as a defense mechanism, making themselves less palatable tovertebrate predators.^[8]