The bird is a protected species in China as part of the China Red Data Book; its stopover site at Jiuduansha off Shanghai is a national nature preserve. In Hong Kong, it is a protected species under Wild Animals Protection Ordinance Cap 200. In Mai Po Marshes, a quarter of the world's population of black-faced spoonbill can be found during migration.
The species is reasonably well protected in North Korea, where their nesting islands off the coast were declared a Zone of Protection with restricted access. There remain nevertheless several threats, mainly in the wintering zones. The need for land to assign to industry is great in the wintering sites in Taiwan, whereas those in Vietnam are being converted for shrimp breeding, though they are within a reserve subject to the Ramsar Convention.
During the winter months, over half of the black-faced spoonbill population migrates to the Chiku Wetland in southwestern Taiwan. The birds are incapable of catching large fish; therefore many of them rely on the largescale mullets to feed off of in the winter months spent in the wetlands.  These mullets however have recently become endangered due to the increase of spoonbill population who spend the winter months there (minimum of 191 birds in 1991/1992 up to a minimum of 840 in 2004/2005). Conservation of the largescale mullet is imperative in order to continue to sustain the endangered black-faced spoonbills.
In Hong Kong, disturbances by fishermen and shell gatherers often prevent the birds from feeding at low tide. In addition, with the continued expansion of human populations in the Far East, pollution will probably become an important problem.  Disease has the ability to devastate the black-face spoonbills as well. In the winter of 2002/2003, 73 of the population died due to avian botulism. It may be necessary to establish additional protective areas or reserves in order to not let the population of birds to succumb to disease.
The black-faced spoonbill is legally recognized as natural monument #205 and a first-class endangered species in South Korea


Platanthera bifolia, commonly known as the lesser butterfly-orchid, is a species of orchid in the genus Platanthera, having certain relations with the genus Orchis, where it was previously included and also with the genus Habenaria. It is a Palaearctic species occurring from Ireland in the west, across Europe and Asia to Korea and Japan. It is also found in North Africa. The name Platanthera is derived from Greek, meaning "broad anthers", while the species name, bifolia, means "two leaves".


Lesser butterfly-orchids are not to be confused with the greater butterfly-orchid, which are about the same size. Lesser butterfly-orchids are distinguished by their two shining green basal leaves, especially of the hill form, which are shorter and broader and by the angle of the pollinia. The upper sepal and petals form a loose triangular hood above the pollinia, which lie parallel and close together, obscuring the opening into the spur, which is long and almost straight. There are usually around 25 white flowers tinged with yellow-green in a slim flower spike. The flowers are night-scented, but the chemical components of the scent are different from those of greater butterfly-orchid and attract different pollinators.


Hybrids of the two butterfly-orchids are rare, as are those between lesser butterfly-orchid and other species. However, hybrids have been recorded with frog orchid in South Uist (1949) and with the common spotted-orchid and the heath spotted-orchid.


The lesser butterfly-orchid occupies a wide range of habitats, being far more tolerant of acid conditions than the greater butterfly-orchid. They are found in grasslands, woodlands (especially beech woods in southern England), in hill pastures up to 400m, on heaths and moorland, and in tussocky marshy ground.


Sphingid moths are attracted by the scent of this orchid, and tend to hover in front of the flowers, resting their forelegs on the lip. As the proboscis enters the spur it pushes between the pollinia, dislodging the sticky discs which adhere to it. Pollinators include pine, small elephant and, to a lesser extent, elephant hawk-moths.


This species has suffered a serious decline, especially in central and southern England, as a result of woodland clearance. Upland populations in the north and west have suffered from overgrazing.


Flowering from late spring until summer, Platanthera blephariglottis is an 8 to 110 centimeters (3 to 43 inches) tall plant that can be found growing in bogs and on the moist banks of lakes and rivers on the eastern side of North America.
Stem and leaves
At least 2 and often several spreading to ascending leaves scattered along the stem. Leaf shapes from linear-lanceolate, ovate-lanceolate and elliptic-lanceolate.
Flowers
Dense to lax spikes of showy white flowers.  Lateral sepals bent downward and outward more than 90 degrees. Petals are near entire fringed and the shape is linear and narrows toward the point of attachment.


Often found growing in sphagnum and other acidic moss, in open wet areas in black spruce and/or tamarack bogs or on the boggy shores of lakes and in open wet meadows.
Native
Nearctic
Eastern Canada: Ontario, Quebec
Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont
North-Central United States: Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin
Southeastern United States: Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia
South-Central United States: Texas
Sources: NRCS, WSH


Platanthera chlorantha, commonly known as greater butterfly-orchid, is a species of orchid in the genus Platanthera. It can be found throughout Europe and Morocco. The name Platanthera is derived from Greek, meaning "broad anthers", while the species name, chlorantha, means "green-flowered".
Greater butterfly-orchid is similar to lesser butterfly-orchid, Platanthera bifolia, which is about the same size, but with smaller flowers. Greater butterfly-orchid is a herbaceous perennial of medium height. Its leaves are broad, shiny and elliptical, with a large pair at the base, and much smaller, more lanceolate leaves up the stem. The flowers are greenish-white, scented of vanilla, with spreading sepals and petals. The lip of the flower is long, narrow and undivided. The flower has a very long spur. The flowers form a rather loose spike. The pollen masses diverge to touch both sides of the pollinating insect. Flowering in Britain is in June to July, but earlier in the south of Europe. The plant is found in woods, open scrub, and grassland including on chalk.
Its world distribution is broadly endemic to Europe: from the British Isles in the west to European Russia and the Caucasus in the east; and from the coastal region of Norway to 65°N, down to the whole of Italy and the Balkans excluding most of Greece. There are scattered outliers in Spain, Turkey, and North Africa. (Codes)


Fitter 1974. p.282
Den virtuella floran, http://linnaeus.nrm.se/flora/mono/orchida/plata/platchlv.jpg
"World Checklist of Selected Plant Families".
"World Checklist of Selected Plant Families TDWG Geocodes" (PDF).


There is two accepted subspecies, Platanthera orbiculata var. macrophylla and Platanthera orbiculata var. orbiculata.


Platanthera orbiculata is found in moist to mesic shaded locations in forests. Each plant has two large, nearly round leaves that lie close to the ground, plus a vertical flowering stalk bearing a spike of small, white flowers.


Platanthera psycodes, commonly called lesser purple fringed orchid or small purple-fringed orchid, is a species of orchid, genus Platanthera,  occurring from eastern Canada (from Manitoba to Newfoundland) to the east-central and northeastern United States (Great Lakes Region, Appalachian Mountains, and New England). It is imperiled in Illinois, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Kentucky.
The specific epithet psycodes is a misspelling of psychodes, which means "butterfly-like", probably alluding to the shape of the flowers. Like many other orchids it is a plant of wet habitats: sedge meadows, flatwoods, sphagnum bogs, cedar or alder swamps, on stream edges or the moist edges of coniferous forests. It is occasionally found in wet swales adjoining freshwater sandy beaches. Preferring cooler habitats, its range is being pushed northwards as global temperatures warm. Correll refers to locations of 1,500-foot (460 m) altitudes in Vermont, 4,000-foot (1,200 m) altitudes in Virginia and 6,500-foot (2,000 m) altitudes in North Carolina and Tennessee. It is often confused with its relative, Platanthera grandiflora, which generally has larger flowers (lip or labellum 10 to 25 millimetres (1⁄3 to 1 in) long), and has a circular nectary opening, compared to P. psycodes which has smaller flowers (the labellum measuring from 5 to 13 millimetres (1⁄4 to 1⁄2 in) long) and an oblong or almost rectangular opening.  The most important characteristic separating the two species is the shape of the column and relative placement of the pollinia on the pollinators.  In P. psycodes the column is shaped such that the pollinia are attached to the proboscis of the pollinator whereas in P. grandiflora the column is larger and the viscidia of the pollinia are widely spaced and outwardly rotated.  This results in the pollinia being placed on the eyes of the pollinator.  P. grandiflora has a much more restricted range and where the two species do overlap in range, they are phenotypically separated, with P. grandiflora typically blooming from late June through early July while P. psycodes blooms from late July through early August.


Platanthera stricta is a species of orchid known by the common name slender bog orchid. It is native to western North America from Alaska and Yukon south to Utah and northern California.
Platanthera stricta grows in wet areas, such as shady forest meadows. It produces a slender, erect flowering stem up to about 80 centimetres (31 in) tall. The longest leaves near the base of the stem are up to 11 centimetres (4+1⁄3 in) long by 2.5 centimetres (1 in) wide. The inflorescence has widely spaced green flowers, sometimes tinged red or purple. The sepals and petals are around one-half centimetre (1⁄4 in) long and each flower has a club-shaped spur.


Platanus occidentalis, also known as American sycamore, American planetree, western plane, occidental plane, buttonwood, and water beech, is a species of Platanus native to the eastern and central United States, the mountains of northeastern Mexico, extreme southern Ontario, and possibly extreme southern Quebec. It is usually called sycamore in North America, a name which can refer to other types of trees in other parts of the world.
The species epithet occidentalis is Latin for "western", referring to the Western Hemisphere, because at the time when it was named by Carl Linnaeus, the only other species in the genus was P. orientalis ("eastern"), native to the Eastern Hemisphere.


An American sycamore tree can often be easily distinguished from other trees by its mottled bark which flakes off in large irregular masses, leaving the surface mottled and gray, greenish-white and brown. The bark of all trees has to yield to a growing trunk by stretching, splitting, or infilling. The sycamore shows the process more openly than many other trees. The explanation is found in the rigid texture of the bark tissue which lacks the elasticity of the bark of some other trees, so it is incapable of stretching to accommodate the growth of the wood underneath, so the tree sloughs it off.
A sycamore can grow to massive proportions, typically reaching up to 30 to 40 m (98 to 131 ft) high and 1.5 to 2 m (4.9 to 6.6 ft) in diameter when grown in deep soils. The largest of the species have been measured to 53 m (174 ft), and nearly 4 m (13 ft) in diameter. Larger specimens were recorded in historical times. In 1744, a Shenandoah Valley settler named Joseph Hampton and two sons lived for most of the year in a hollow sycamore in what is now Clarke County, Virginia. In 1770, at Point Pleasant, Virginia (now in West Virginia) near the junction of the Kanawha and Ohio Rivers, George Washington recorded in his journal a sycamore measuring 13.67 m (44 ft 10 in) in circumference at 91 cm (3 ft) from the ground.
The sycamore tree is often divided near the ground into several secondary trunks, very free from branches.  Spreading limbs at the top make an irregular, open head. Roots are fibrous. The trunks of large trees are often hollow.
Another peculiarity is the way the leaves grow sticky, green buds. In early August, most trees in general will have—nestled in the axils of their leaves—the tiny forming bud which will produce the leaves of the coming year. The sycamore branch apparently has no such buds. Instead there is an enlargement of the petiole which encloses the bud in a tight-fitting case at the base of the petiole.
Bark: Dark reddish brown, broken into oblong plate-like scales; higher on the tree, it is smooth and light gray; separates freely into thin plates which peel off and leave the surface pale yellow, or white, or greenish. Branchlets at first pale green, coated with thick pale tomentum, later dark green and smooth, finally become light gray or light reddish brown.
Wood: Light brown, tinged with red; heavy, weak, difficult to split. Largely used for furniture and interior finish of houses, butcher's blocks. Specific gravity, 0.5678; relative density, 0.53724 g/cm³ (33.539 lb/cu ft).
Winter buds: Large, stinky, sticky, green, and three-scaled, they form in summer within the petiole of the full grown leaf. The inner scales enlarge with the growing shake. There is no terminal bud.
Leaves: Alternate, palmately nerved, broadly ovate or orbicular, 10 to 23 cm (4 to 9 in) long, truncate or cordate or wedge-shaped at base, decurrent on the petiole. Three to five-lobed by broad shallow sinuses rounded in the bottom; lobes acuminate, toothed, or entire, or undulate. They come out of the bud plicate, pale green coated with pale tomentum; when full grown are bright yellow green above, paler beneath. In autumn they turn brown and wither before falling. Petioles long, abruptly enlarged at base and inclosing the buds. Stipules with spreading, toothed borders, conspicuous on young shoots, caducous.
Flowers: May, with the leaves; monoecious, borne in dense heads. Staminate and pistillate heads on separate peduncles. Staminate heads dark red, on axillary peduncles; pistillate heads light green tinged with red, on longer terminal peduncles. Calyx of staminate flowers three to six tiny scale-like sepals, slightly united at the base, half as long as the pointed petals. Of pistillate flowers three to six, usually four, rounded sepals, much shorter than the acute petals. Corolla of three to six thin scale-like petals.
Stamens: In staminate flowers as many of the divisions of the calyx and opposite to them; filaments short; anthers elongated, two-celled; cells opening by lateral slits; connectives hairy.
Pistil: Ovary superior, one-celled, sessile, ovate-oblong, surrounded at base by long, jointed, pale hairs; styles long, incurved, red, stigmatic, ovules one or two.
Fruit: Brown heads, solitary or rarely clustered, 2.5 cm (1 in) in diameter, hanging on slender stems three to six inches long; persistent through the winter. These heads are composed of achenes about two-thirds of an inch in length. October.


In its native range, it is often found in riparian and wetland areas. The range extends from Iowa to Ontario and New Hampshire in the north, Nebraska in the west, and south to Texas and Florida. It is apparently extirpated from Maine. Closely related species (see Platanus) occur in Mexico and the southwestern states of the United States. It is sometimes grown for timber, and has become naturalized in some areas outside its native range. It can be found growing successfully in Bismarck, North Dakota, and it is sold as far south as Okeechobee. The American sycamore is also well adapted to life in Argentina and Australia and is quite widespread across the Australian continent especially in the cooler southern states such as Victoria and New South Wales.


The American sycamore is able to endure a big city environment and was formerly extensively planted as a shade tree, but due to the defacing effects of anthracnose it has been largely usurped in this function by the resistant London plane.
Its wood has been used extensively for butcher's blocks. It has been used for boxes and crates; although coarse-grained and difficult to work, it has also been used to make furniture, siding, and musical instruments.
Investigations have been made into its use as a biomass crop.


The American sycamore is a favored food plant of the pest sycamore leaf beetle.
American sycamore is susceptible to plane anthracnose disease (Apiognomonia veneta, syn. Gnomonia platani), an introduced fungus found naturally on the Oriental plane P. orientalis, which has evolved considerable resistance to the disease. Although rarely killed or even seriously harmed, American sycamore is commonly partially defoliated by the disease, rendering it unsightly as a specimen tree.
Sometimes mistaken for frost damage, the disease manifests in early spring, wilting new leaves and causing mature leaves to turn brown along the veins.  Infected leaves typically shrivel and fall, so that by summer the tree is regrowing its foliage.  Cankers form on twigs and branches near infected leaves, serving to spread the disease by spore production and also weakening the tree. Because cankers restrict the flow of nutrients, twigs and branches afflicted by cankers eventually die.  Witch's broom is a symptom reflecting the cycle of twigs dying.
As a result of the fungus' damage, American sycamore is often avoided as a landscape tree, and the more resistant London plane (P. × hispanica; hybrid P. occidentalis × P. orientalis) is planted instead.


Platanus wrightii, the Arizona sycamore, is a sycamore tree native to Arizona and New Mexico with its range extending south into the Mexican states of Sonora, Chihuahua, and Sinaloa.
The tree is a large deciduous tree, growing up to 82 ft (25 m).


The Arizona sycamore is a tree of central Arizona's transition zone in the Mogollon Rim–White Mountains. The range extends into southwest New Mexico and parts of Sonora, Chihuahua, and Sinaloa in Mexico. In Arizona the range extends south towards northern Sonora. The range in southeast Arizona is a northeasterly part of the Sonoran Desert, and is at the northern region of the Sierra Madre Occidental cordillera.
Arizona sycamore is prevalent in riparian areas of the Madrean Sky Islands, mountain sky islands in southeast Arizona, extreme southwest, Bootheel region of New Mexico and along the San Francisco River in Western New Mexico, northeastern Sonora, and extreme northwest Chihuahua). The species is more prevalent west of the Madrean Sky Islands region, still in the central and northeast Sonoran Desert, an area around the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument at the Arizona-Sonora border, with the species range extending in Sonora in the Occidentals, or its western foothills. Scattered reports have been made farther east in the Sierra Madre Occidental.


"Platanus wrightii". Tropicos. Missouri Botanical Garden.
"Platanus wrightii". World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew – via The Plant List.
"Platanus wrightii". Native Plant Database. Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, University of Texas at Austin.
Laferriere, J.E. Platanaceae, "Sycamore or Plane Tree Family". Journal of the Arizona–Nevada Academy of Science 26: 238. 1992
Kaul, Robert B. (1997). "Platanus wrightii".  In Flora of North America Editorial Committee (ed.). Flora of North America North of Mexico (FNA). Vol. 3. New York and Oxford – via eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA.
Little Jr., Elbert L. (1976). "Map 113, Platanus wrightii". Atlas of United States Trees. Vol. 3 (Minor Western Hardwoods). US Government Printing Office. LCCN 79-653298. OCLC 4053799.


The crimson rosella (Platycercus elegans) is a parrot native to eastern and south eastern Australia which has been introduced to New Zealand and Norfolk Island. It is commonly found in, but not restricted to, mountain forests and gardens. The species as it now stands has subsumed two former separate species, the yellow rosella and the Adelaide rosella. Molecular studies show one of the three red-coloured races, P. e. nigrescens, is genetically more distinct.


The crimson rosella was described by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in the 13th edition of Systema Naturae in 1788 as Psittacus elegans. The binomial name had been used by Clusius to describe the hawk-headed parrot in 1605, however this predates the start of Linnean taxonomy.
The crimson rosella had been described and named by John Latham in 1781 as the "Beautiful Lory", from a specimen in the collection of Sir Joseph Banks, and then as the "Pennantian Parrot" in 1787 in honour of Thomas Pennant. However he did not give the species a binomial name until 1790, when he named it Psittacus pennantii.
Nicholas Aylward Vigors defined the genus Platycercus in 1825, based on the distinctive architecture of the feathers in the tail and wing, and designated the crimson rosella (as Platycercus pennantii) as the type species.
Most authors used Latham's combination Platycercus pennantii until 1891, when Italian zoologist Tommaso Salvadori established that P. elegans had priority, leading to its universal adoption thereafter.
Edward Pierson Ramsay described the subspecies nigrescens in 1888, noting its darker crimson plumage, black back and nape, and smaller size yet larger bill. It was also known as "northern crimson parrot" or "Campbell's parakeet", after Alexander James Campbell.
In 1941, Herbert Condon proposed that the yellow and Adelaide rosellas be reclassified as subspecies of the crimson rosella.
"Crimson rosella" has been designated the official name by the International Ornithologists' Union (IOC), however it wasn't given this name until the publication of the 1926 RAOU checklist. Before this it had been known as the crimson parrot, while the term "rosella" had been restricted to the eastern rosella. The name "blue-cheeked rosella" was proposed for the united species elegans, but was not generally taken up.
Today, the red-coloured races are generally known as the crimson rosella, with the alternate names Red Lowry, Pennant's parakeet, Campbell parakeet, (blue) mountain parrot, (blue) mountain lowry or just plain lowry occasionally heard. Cayley reported that the first two alternate names were most common in the early part of the twentieth century. On Norfolk Island it is called simply red parrot.
The yellow rosella, also known by a variety of alternate common names including Murrumbidgee lowry, murray rosella, swamp lowry and yellow-rumped parakeet, was described as Platycercus flaveolus by John Gould, who gave it the last common name mentioned. It was reduced to subspecies status once hybridization was noted where ranges overlap, however some authorities maintain the hybridization is not widespread and hence preserve its specific status. This view is in the minority, however.


Platycercus elegans is a medium-sized Australian parrot at 36 cm (14 in) long, much of which is tail. There are seven subspecies, three of which are actually crimson. The red is replaced by yellow in the case of var. flaveolus and a mixture of red, orange and yellow in the Adelaide rosella.
Adults and juveniles generally show strikingly different colouration in south-eastern populations, with predominantly greenish-olive body plumage on the juvenile, most persistent on the nape and breast. Juveniles are said to 'ripen' as they get older and turn from green to red. All races have blue cheeks and black-scalloped blue-margined wings and predominantly blue tail with predominantly red coloration. The crimson rosella's blue tail feathers are one of the favourite decorations of the satin bowerbird. The bill is pale grey and the iris dark brown.
There is very little sexual dimorphism in crimson rosellas. The most noticeable difference between genders is that males are up to 15% larger, and have a relatively larger and wider beak.


P. elegans elegans, the nominate race of Victoria and eastern New South Wales. P. elegans nigrescens, occurring on Queensland's northeastern coast, and P. elegans melanoptera on Kangaroo Island. The main distinctions between these is size: nigrescens is the smallest of the three and melanoptera is the largest; both are slightly darker than the nominate race.
The juveniles of P. e. nigrescens lack the greenish immature plumage of the other subspecies of crimson rosella.


The yellow rosella, which lives along the Murray River and several of its tributaries, was reclassified (1968) as a subspecies, P. elegans flaveolus, of the crimson as the two were found to interbreed where their ranges overlap. The main difference between the two is that the crimson areas replaced with light yellow and the tail more greenish.


The crimson rosella occurs from southeastern South Australia, through Tasmania, Victoria and coastal New South Wales into southeastern Queensland. A disparate population occurs in North Queensland.
Around 1910, a small number of crimson rosellas were released off the Otago Heads, New Zealand, along with eastern rosellas. These interbred and by the 1950s no pure crimson rosellas remained. This mixed population has remained there ever since. Crimson rosellas were also present in Wellington City from 1963 through the early 1990s as an introduced species. Two crimson rosellas were also recorded from the Tararua foothills in 1971. It is now thought to be extinct in the wild in New Zealand.
Crimson rosellas were taken to Norfolk Island as cage birds during the first penal settlement. Escaping into the wild, they were reported before 1838, and have become numerous by 1900. There they are often known as "red parrots", to distinguish them from the native Norfolk Island parakeet or "green parrots".
Crimson rosellas are common in coastal and mountain forests at all altitudes. They primarily live in forests and woodlands, preferring older and wetter forests. They can be found in tropical, subtropical, and temperate rainforests, both wet and dry sclerophyllous forests, riparian forests, and woodlands, all the way from sea level up to the tree line. They will also live in human-affected areas such as farmlands, pastures, fire-breaks, parks, reserves, gardens, and golf-courses. They are rarely found in treeless areas. At night, they roost on high tree branches.


Almost all rosellas are sedentary, although occasional populations are considered nomadic; no rosellas are migratory. Outside of the breeding season, crimson rosellas tend to congregate in pairs or small groups and feeding parties. The largest groups are usually composed of juveniles, who will gather in flocks of up to 20 individuals. When they forage, they are conspicuous and chatter noisily. Rosellas are monogamous, and during the breeding season, adult birds will not congregate in groups and will only forage with their mate.
According to a new study crimson rosellas can identify birds of their own subspecies based on the smell of other birds.


Crimson rosellas forage in trees, bushes, and on the ground for the fruit, seeds, nectar, berries, and nuts of a wide variety of plants, including members of the Myrtaceae, Asteraceae, and Rosaceae families. Despite feeding on fruits and seeds, rosellas are not useful to the plants as seed-spreaders, because they crush and destroy the seeds in the process of eating them.
Their diet often puts them at odds with farmers whose fruit and grain harvests can be damaged by the birds, which has resulted in large numbers of rosellas being shot in the past. Adelaide rosellas are known to feed on dormant cherry flower buds. Rosellas will also eat many insects and their larvae, including termites, aphids, beetles, weevils, caterpillars, moths, and water boatmen.


Nesting sites are hollows greater than 1 metre (3.3 feet) deep in tree trunks, limbs, and stumps. These may be up to 30 metres (98 feet) above the ground. The nesting site is selected by the female. Once the site is selected, the pair will prepare it by lining it with wood debris made from the hollow itself by gnawing and shredding it with their beaks. They do not bring in material from outside the hollow. Only one pair will nest in a particular tree. A pair will guard their nest by perching near it and chattering at other rosellas that approach. They will also guard a buffer zone of several trees radius around their nest, preventing other pairs from nesting in that area.
The breeding season of the crimson rosella lasts from September through to February, and varies depending on the rainfall of each year; it starts earlier and lasts longer during wet years. The laying period is on average during mid- to late October. Clutch size ranges from 3–8 eggs, which are laid asynchronously at an average interval of 2.1 days; the eggs are white and slightly shiny and measure 28 by 23 millimetres (1+1⁄8 in × 7⁄8 in). The mean incubation period is 19.7 days, and ranges from 16–28 days. Only the mother incubates the eggs. The eggs hatch around mid-December; on average 3.6 eggs successfully hatch. There is a bias towards female nestlings, as 41.8% of young are male. For the first six days, only the mother feeds the nestlings. After this time, both parents feed them. The young become independent in February, after which they spend a few more weeks with their parents before departing to become part of a flock of juveniles. Juveniles reach maturity (gain adult plumage) at 16 months of age.


The nominate bird is mainly red, and a few colour mutations exist, such as the blue, yellow, white, and cinnamon, in aviculture.


Predators of crimson rosellas include the peregrine falcon, grey goshawk and powerful owl, as well as feral cats and foxes. Possums and currawongs are also believed to occasionally take eggs from the nest.
Surprisingly, however, the crimson rosella is its own worst enemy. During the breeding season, it is common for females to fly to other nests and destroy the eggs and in fact, this is the most common cause for an egg failing to hatch. This behaviour is thought to be a function of competition for suitable nesting hollows, since a nest will be abandoned if all the eggs in it are destroyed, and a pair of rosellas will tend to nest in the same area from year to year.
A new study has shown that hybrid birds were more likely to fight off diseases than were pure breeds; an example of the biological phenomenon of heterosis, in which a crossbreed is stronger than its two purebred ancestors. Scientists from the Centre for Integrative Ecology at Deakin University in Geelong, Victoria, studied the infection patterns of beak and feather diseases in crimson rosellas across southern Australia. This included several hybrid populations in northeastern Victoria and southern New South Wales, located in between the range of the two parent subspecies. (Platycercus elegans flaveolus and P. elegans elegans). They found that when the subspecies mated, the resulting offspring seemed to cope better with a potentially deadly virus.


The eastern rosella (Platycercus eximius) is a rosella native to southeastern Australia and Tasmania.
It has been introduced to New Zealand where feral populations are found in the North Island (notably in the northern half of the island, Taranaki, Waikato and in the Hutt Valley) and in the hills around Dunedin in the South Island.


The eastern rosella was named by George Shaw in 1792. It is sometimes considered a subspecies of the pale-headed rosella (P. adscitus). The term 'white-cheeked rosella' has been used for a species or superspecies combining the pale-headed and eastern forms.  Hybrids of the two taxa have been recorded where their ranges meet in northeastern New South Wales and southeastern Queensland. However, a mitochondrial study published in 2017 found that the eastern rosella was the earlier offshoot of the lineage that split into the pale-headed  and northern rosellas, and that nonsister taxa were hence able to hybridise.
Three subspecies of eastern rosella are recognised:
P. e. eximius, Victoria and southern New South Wales. Black feathers on the back have green margins. Rump is pale green.
P. e. elecica, northeast New South Wales and southeast Queensland. In the male the black feathers on the back have golden-yellow margins, and greenish-yellow in the female. The rump is bluish-green. This subspecies is also called the golden-mantled rosella, often abbreviated to GMR.
P. e. diemenensis, eastern Tasmania. White cheek patches are larger and the red on the head is darker.


The eastern rosella is 30 cm (12 in) long. It has a red head and white cheeks. The beak is white and the irises are brown. The upper breast is red and the lower breast is yellow fading to pale green over the abdomen. The feathers of the back and shoulders are black, and have yellowish or greenish margins giving rise to a scalloped appearance that varies slightly between the subspecies and the sexes. The wings and lateral tail feathers are bluish while the tail is dark green. The legs are grey. The female is similar to the male though duller in colouration and has an underwing stripe, which is not present in the adult male. Juveniles are duller than females and have an underwing stripe.
The diet of eastern rosellas mainly consists of fruit, seeds, flowers and insects.


The natural range of the eastern rosella is eastern Australia, including Tasmania. The species is found in lightly wooded country, open forests, woodlands, gardens, bushlands and parks.
The eastern rosella (Platycercus eximius) has become naturalised in New Zealand. By the 1970s the population, probably originally from cage escapees, was strongly established throughout Auckland, Northland, and the far north, extending into west Waikato, as far south as Kawhia and Te Kuiti, and east to the Coromandel Peninsula. The species is also found in the Wellington-Hutt Valley Region, established in the 1960s from escaped cage birds, later colonising the foothills of the Tararua Range, to Eketahuna in the east, and Ōtaki in the west (range up to 1985). There have been sightings in New Plymouth, Taupo, Gisborne, Tiritea, Banks Peninsula, Nelson area, and Stewart Island. The first occurrence of these parrots in New Zealand was about 1910 when a small shipment of eastern rosellas, as well as a few crimson rosellas (P. elegans), that had been refused entry into New Zealand by the Customs Department was released off Otago Heads by the ship that brought them, as she was returning to Sydney. The two species crossed, and by 1955 no pure crimson rosellas remained in the Dunedin area. The population of rosellas in Dunedin has always remained low, partially due to them being trapped and sold as caged birds.


Eastern rosellas usually breed in spring but if needed summer as well. They can have two to nine eggs. In the wild their breeding hollow is 1 metre (3 ft) deep and 30 metres (98 ft) high up a tree. The sign the eastern rosella mostly shows that they would be breeding is that they give food to each other.


Platylobium obtusangulum, the common flat-pea,  is a  shrub that is endemic to Australia. It is a member of the family Fabaceae and of the genus Platylobium.
The species is an erect or straggling shrub that can grow up to 1 metre in height. The leaves are variable in shape and their length ranges from 1 to 3 cm.
The flowers appear in spring. These are yellow with a red centre and are supported by short pedicels that are concealed by a series of overlapping bracts. The pods which follow are 14 to 25 mm in length and 10 to 14 mm in width.
The species was first formally described by botanist William Jackson Hooker  in 1833 in Botanical Magazine
This species is found in South Australia, Tasmania, and Victoria.


Platynota flavedana, the black-shaded platynota moth, is a species of moth of the family Tortricidae. It is found in the United States from Minnesota to Maine, south to North Carolina and west to Arizona.
The length of the forewings is 5-6.5 mm for males and 6-8.5 mm for females. Adults are sexually dimorphic. The forewings of the males are dark purplish brown basally and yellowish to orangish brown apically. Females have brown to orangish brown forewings with dark brown to purplish-brown markings. The hindwings of both sexes are brown to orangish brown. Adults are on wing from May to June and again from July to September. There are usually two generations per year, but a partial third generation may occur in the southern part of the range.
The larvae feed on various plants and have been recorded on Acer, Eupatorium, Helianthus, Dianthus caryophyllus, Helianthemum, Hypericum perforatum, Rhododendron, Trifolium, Sassafras, Gossypium hirsutum, Gossypium thurberi, Fragaria, Prunus persica, Rosa and Citrus species. They feed from within a shelter constructed of tied or folded leaves. Feeding may cause damage to blossoms or fruit. Full-grown larvae reach a length of 13–21 mm. They have a green to pale green body and brownish-yellow head. The species overwinters as a mid-instar larva. Pupation takes place in webbed leaves.


The tufted apple bud moth (Platynota idaeusalis) is a moth of the family Tortricidae. It is found in eastern North America, from Ontario, south to Florida, west to Oklahoma.
The wingspan is 12–25 mm. Adults are on wing from June to July in the north. There are multiple generations per year.
The larvae feed on the leaves of various plants, including apple, ash, walnut, boxelder, clover, goldenrod, pine and willow. It is considered one of the most serious direct pests of apples in the mid-Atlantic region of North America.


Platystemon is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the poppy family containing the single species Platystemon californicus, which is known by the common name creamcups. It is native to Oregon, California, Arizona, Utah and Baja California, and is found in open grasslands and sandy soils below 6,000 feet (1,800 m) elevation.


Platystemon californicus is a variable plant taking such a wide range of forms it has been split, reorganized, and redescribed as up to 57 different species. Its form often varies according to geography and habitat conditions. Coastal forms may be hairless and a bit succulent, while semidesert individuals can be squat, hairy plants. Some authors describe separate varieties, which are ecotypes adapted to specific, often very limited, habitat types.
The annual herb is usually at least a bit hairy, sometimes quite woolly. The stem is upright to decumbent and 3 to 30 centimeters long. The leaves are oppositely arranged or whorled about the stem. They are widely linear and smooth-edged with rounded or pointed tips. They are 1 to 9 centimeters long. The inflorescence is a single flower growing from a leaf axil or the tip of the stem. It is borne on a peduncle 3 to 26 centimeters long with three hairy sepals. The flower usually has six petals, but a large flower can have more. The petals vary in size, shape, and color. They measure 6 to 19 millimeters long and have rounded or pointed tips. There are five basic color patterns: solid white, solid yellow, and a white petal with a yellow tip or yellow base or both. The all-yellow petals are less common. The petals may age reddish. The center of the flower is filled with several whorls of stamens with thickened ends. The fruit is a capsule up to 1.6 centimeters long which is divided into many sections containing shiny black seeds.
The flowers are partly wind-pollinated and partly pollinated by solitary bees.


The silver-studded blue (Plebejus argus) is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. It has bright blue wings rimmed in black with white edges and silver spots on its hindwings, lending it the name of the silver-studded blue. P. argus can be found across Europe and east across the Palearctic, but is most often studied in the United Kingdom in which the species has experienced a severe decline in population due to habitat loss and fragmentation.
P. argus engages in mutualism with ants that contribute to the butterflies' reproductive fitness by providing protection from predation and parasitism from the point of egg laying to their emergence as adults. P. argus adults emerge in the end of June and beginning of July and engage in flight into the beginning of August.
The butterfly is adaptable to different habitats and is found in heathland, mossland, and limestone grassland. Tending towards a sedentary lifestyle and typically flying less than 20 metres (66 ft) a day, P. argus maintains a small radius home range. Their habitats lend themselves well to both foraging and egg laying as the host plants are ubiquitous in all three environments they occupy.


L. argus L. ([equals] aegon Schiff., argyrotoxus Bgstr.) (78 c). This and the following species [argyrognomon] have in the anal area of the hindwing beneath on the black submarginal dots situated between the median branches and the submedian vein some metallic glittering scales which are usually not represented in our figures. The upperside is deep dark blue, with a broad black border, argus is very similar to argyrognomon, but differs in quite a number of details, of which in the various individuals sometimes one sometimes another is more conspicuously developed. On the upperside the blue gloss is deeper, darker, duller, with a slight violet tint and not so far extended to the margin, the latter being broader and appearing blacker; the row of dark submarginal dots which occasionally appear on the hindwing above in both species, therefore stands always in the black border in argus. On the underside both sexes of argus have nearly always a strongly glittering blue-green dusting at the base of the wings, which is usually absent from argyrognomon; but we must add that also the inverse occurs, the blue basal dusting being absent from argus in exceptional cases and strongly marked in argyrognomon. As a rule argus L., moreover, is somewhat smaller than argyrognomon, but the size varies considerably according to the altitude of the locality and the various broods.
— ab. valesiana M.-Durr is frequently found among specimens from the Valais (but not exclusively and not constantly); it is distinguished by a yellowish grey underside and very small ocelli. ab. corsica Bell., on the other hand, is a form which flies regularly in the mountains of Corsica and differs in the ocelli of the underside bearing pupils of the ground-colour and having larger borders, which almost form pale rings on a grey-brown ground. This form occurs as an exception everywhere, having been obtained by Standen even in Norway. Females which are nearly as blue above as the males are not very rare in certain localities, especially among the summer-broad, this is ab. coerulescens Peters ([equals] pseudocallarga Neustetter).
— A constant form is hypochiona Rbr. (78 d, ground-colour too dull), from the most southern very sunny districts of Europe (Ionian Islands, Greece, Andalusia); underside rather pale, the black eye-dots small and placed in large pale halos, before the margin a row of bright red spots. Similar individuals are occasionally also found in other districts, e. g. at Digne and according to Jones even in
England.
— A very large form is insularis Leech (78 d), from the north-island of Japan; its underside resembles hypochiona in its light pure ground-colour, but bears abundant and prominent black spots. Above the marginal spots of the hindwing are especially very distinct.
— Also bella H.-Sch. (78 d, e) is placed by Staudinger and Rebel as a variety of argus; it is a small form, which resembles hypochiona beneath, but is very dark above, with very thin red-yellow submarginal spots on the upperside of the hindwing, which are unfortunately not visible in our figure 78 d, the hindwing beneath bearing paler marginal spots; from the shores of the Black Sea, Armenia and Persia.
— Perhaps also iburiensis Btlr. [ now full species Plebejus iburiensis (Butler, [1882])]belongs here; it is unknown to me in nature and was described from one specimen from Hokkaido; it appears to be a kind of albino of insularis.
— Very small specimens, as they are found especially in Valais, are alpina Berce; exceptionally large specimens were obtained by Chapman at Bejar in Spain and named by him bejarensis [now subspecies].
— The form micrargus Btlr. [now subspecies] from Tokio, which is quite unknown to me, is said to have the lilac colour of argia, with the black margin dentate and the fringes very bright white; beneath in colour like pylaon, the spots as in argus, but without the metallic scales on the anal spots.
— pseudaegon Btlr. [now full species Plebejus pseudaegon (Butler, [1882])], from the north-island, is smaller than argus, with the black margin narrower, the white fringes thinner, and the black distal marginal spots of the hindwing above smaller, female very feebly dusted with steel-blue at the base, underside more extended green than in true argus and its ocelli smaller. Likewise unknown to me.
— Sometimes there occurs a basal dot on the underside; this is ab. unipuncta Mousley. In ab. coeruleocuneata Ebert there appear blue wedge-shaped submarginal spots on the upperside of the hindwing.

— Larva very variable, usually light green with dark dorsal spots, sometimes however grey or dark brown with pale spots. In June and the autumn on various plants, such as Coronilla, Trifolium, Colutea, and Genista, said to occur also on Erica, Ornithopus, Fragaria, Thymus and other plants. Near or upon the larva there is a guard of ants, usually specimens of Formica cinerea Mayr. The larva as well as the chrysalis are found in the nests of this ant. Pupa elongate, green with red dorsal line; abdomen above yellowish green. The butterflies are on the wing in May and again from July onwards, but are said to have only one brood in the north. They are common everywhere, especially on sandy soil, which also its ant prefers, but is said to noticeably decrease recently in numbers in some districts (e. g. in England). The form alpina I found in large numbers in Valais below Zermatt towards evening in stony localities where they were at rest in small bushes; I counted 38 sleeping specimens in a small thornbush, all having the small size of the form of that neighbourhood.


The caterpillar of P. argus is green with a dark stripe along the length of its body and can reach 1.3 centimeters in length.


P. argus resides in heathland, mossland, and limestone grassland.
Heathlands are able to meet the needs of P. argus due to burning, cutting, and other disruptions of mature heaths. With these disruptions, the habitat becomes conducive to habitation by P. argus because of the high cover of E. cinerea and short C. vulgaris that is able to form a landscape with the patches of bare ground. This is characteristic of heathland in an early stage of development.  This environment is suitable until the point at which the shrubs native to the environment mature and obscure the bare ground and vegetation margins that the butterflies use for oviposition.
Mossland, similar in nature to a wet heathland, has soil primarily composed of peat which supports one of the families of host plants of P. argus, Ericaceae. This host plant grows alongside other grasses, sedges, and rushes. While the main disturbance to heathland is quarrying, mossland faces peat digging which contributes to the transient and shifting nature of this particular habitat.
The hostplants of the first two environments, Ericaceae and Leguminosae, are less present in the third environment, limestone grassland. In this environment, the host plants of P. argus are primarily herbaceous Cistaceae as well as Leguminosae. In limestone grassland, the bare ground and vegetation margins instrumental to the life cycle of P. argus are created through grazing by other animals as well as by disruption of the habitat by natural disturbance of the stoney topography of this environment.
P. argus use shrubs for roosting, resting, basking, mate location, and shelter and for this reason, they tend to be found in higher numbers close to locations that are dense in shrubs. Most of the population gathers around these shrubs during weather that is colder, cloudy, and windy. When the weather is warm, sunny, and the breeze is still, P. argus spends less time in shrub dense habitats and more time in flight and finding host plants in areas rich in calcareous heath. These areas tend to be in exposed hillsides. For this reason, it often appears that the habitat of P. argus shifts with weather conditions.
In addition to choice of habitat due to host plants and topography, P. argus density correlates with the densities of nest of the butterflies' mutualist ants, Lasius niger and Lasius alienus.


Adult P. argus tend to be very sedentary, only moving around 20 metres (66 ft) every day. For this reason, the butterflies colonize on discrete territory and patches of land. Some butterflies, though, disperse and move over a kilometer between colonies. This is rare, however, as these butterflies tend to form metapopulations.


Different types of P. argus larvae choose different host plants. The limestone larvae, caernensis, preferentially select Helianthemum species over heathers as a host plant, while heathland larvae select heathers over Helianthemum.


P. argus lays its eggs differently based on its environment. In heathland, they lay their eggs at the base of Erica tetralix, Calluna vulgaris, Erica cinerea, and Ulex europaeus. In mosslands, the butterflies tend to lay their eggs on the underside of the fronds of the Bracken Fern. This fern appears to be preferential for oviposition because they attract ants. In limestone grasslands, P. argus lays eggs at the stem of Lotus corniculatus and at the base of Helianthemum chamaecistus.


Egg guarding primarily occurs through mutualism with the ants Lasius niger and Lasius alienus. Mothers lay their eggs in locations with strong pheromonal traces from these organisms. From the time of oviposition to hatching, L. niger and L. alienus protect the eggs from predation and parasitism by other organisms. In return, the ants feed on a saccharine secretion produced by glands on the larvae.


The life cycles of Plebejus argus are divided into four main stages: eggs, larvae, pupa, and adults.


P. argus adults emerge in the end of June and beginning of July and engage in flight into the beginning of August. In these butterflies, there is a sex difference in emergence, with males emerging four to nine days earlier than females. As colony size increases, P. argus are temporally recorded earlier in the year. Additionally, as colony size increases, female emergence happens over a greater range of time and there is a greater discrepancy between emergence of the males and emergence of the females.


When a male detects a female sitting quiescently, he flies towards the female. As he approaches the female, he flutters his wings in broad sweeping movements and she raises her abdomen while vibrating her half-open wings in a mate refusal posture. The female then flies away and is followed by the male. Once she lands, the male flutters around, either in the air before descending or after landing. The female displays a receptive posture by folding her wings after which the male positions himself parallel to the female before bending his abdomen, spreading the valves, and exposing the copulatory apparatus. He proceeds to attach to the copulatory apparatus and the butterflies reorient themselves into the copulatory position. The intermediate aspects of sexual chase depend on the sexual receptiveness of the female to the advances of the male.


Plebejus idas, the Idas blue or northern blue, is a butterfly of the family Lycaenidae.


Subspecies include the following:
Plebejus idas acreon (Fabricius, 1787)
Plebejus idas alaskensis F. Chermock, 1945
Plebejus idas altarmenus (Forster, 1936)
Plebejus idas argulus (Frey, 1882)
Plebejus idas aster (Edwards, 1882)
Plebejus idas atrapraetextus Field, 1939
Plebejus idas bavarica (Forster, 1936)
Plebejus idas bellieri (Oberthür, 1910)
Plebejus idas empetri Freeman, 1938
Plebejus idas longinus (Nabokov, 1949)
Plebejus idas lotis Lintner, 1879
Plebejus idas magnagraeta Verity, 1936
Plebejus idas nabokovi (Masters, 1972)
Plebejus idas sareptensis Chapman, 1917
Plebejus idas scudderi (Edwards, 1861)
Plebejus idas sublivens (Nabokov, 1949)
Plebejus idas tshimganus (Forster, 1936)
Plebejus idas lotis (syn. Lycaeides idas lotis, Lycaeides argyrognomon lotis, Plebejus anna lotis) - commonly known as lotis blue butterfly - is a critically endangered subspecies native to Mendocino County, California, with sightings in Sonoma and Marin counties. It has been listed as an endangered species since June 1, 1976, but is believed to be extinct since it has not been seen in the wild since 1994.


This species can be found in most of Europe (except parts of Spain, southern Italy and the United Kingdom), in the northern regions of the Palearctic (Siberia, mountains of South Siberia and  Yakutia)  and in the Nearctic realms.


It usually inhabits grassy flowery areas, mixed evergreen forests and wet meadows up to alpine levels, at an elevation of 200–2,100 metres (660–6,890 ft) above sea level.


Plebejus idas has a wingspan of 17–28 mm. This species is quite variable in colors and markings. The upperside of male's wings is iridescent blue, while it is brown with orange submarginal spots in the females. The underface of the wings is greyish with black spots and it shows a thin black line and small dots along outer margin. Along these margins are also present a rather large orange band with blue spots.
This species is very similar to the Silver studded blue (Plebejus argus) and to the Reverdin's blue (Plebejus argyrognomon). The forelegs of male of Plebejus idas lacks a hook which is present in Plebejus argus.


The species flies  in a single brood from June to August depending on location. The larvae feed on Calluna vulgaris, Vaccinium uliginosum, Empetrum nigrum and various Fabaceae species (mainly Cercis siliquastrum, Melilotus albus, Lotus corniculatus, Cytisus, Genista tinctoria, Trifolium pratense, Chrysaspis campestris, Astragalus alpinus and Anthyllis). They are usually attended by ants (Lasius and Formica species). Second-stage of the caterpillars overwinter.


The Melissa blue (Plebejus melissa) is a butterfly of the family Lycaenidae. It is found in western North America, from Canada to Mexico. The Karner blue (Plebejus melissa samuelis) is a subspecies of the Melissa blue, and was described by the novelist/lepidopterist Vladimir Nabokov.
The wingspan is 22–35 mm. Below, the hindwing orange submarginal band, often with distal iridescent blue points, help to distinguish this species from the more muted colors and markings of the similar Plebejus idas. The marginal line is wider where the veins intersect. The fringes are not checked.
The butterfly flies from April to August depending on the location. The larvae feed on Lupinus, Medicago and Lotus species.


The lovebug (Plecia nearctica) is a species of march fly found in parts of Central America and the southeastern United States, especially along the Gulf Coast. It is also known as the honeymoon fly or double-headed bug. During and after mating, matured pairs remain together, even in flight, for up to several days.
The species was first described in 1940 by D. E. Hardy, but was seen in Louisiana as early as 1911. At that time, he reported the incidence of lovebugs to be widespread, but most common in Texas, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.  However, by the end of the 20th century the species had spread heavily to all areas bordering the Gulf of Mexico, as well as Georgia and South Carolina. L. A. Hetrick, writing in 1970, found the bug was also widespread in central and northern Florida and described its flights as reaching altitudes of 300 to 450 metres (980 to 1,480 ft) and extending several kilometers over the Gulf.
Lovebugs' larvae feed on partially decayed vegetation in the landscape and, in this respect, are beneficial to humans. Adults primarily feed on nectar from various plants, particularly sweet clover, goldenrod, and Brazilian pepper.


Female lovebugs can lay as many as 100-350 eggs and regularly lay these eggs around decaying material on the top layer of ground soil. Lovebug eggs generally hatch after 2–4 days, depending on flight season. Once the eggs have hatched, the larvae start feeding on the decaying material around them, such as decaying plants on the soil and other organic material, and live and remain in the soil until they develop to the pupa stage. During the warmer months the lovebug larvae remain in the larvae phase for approximately 120 days and approximately 240 days during the cooler months. Lovebugs typically stay in the pupa stage about 7–9 days before reaching the adult phase, in which they can start reproducing.
Once adults, lovebugs are ready to start copulating to begin reproducing. Adult male lovebugs emerge first from the pupal stage and hover around until female lovebugs emerge. Mating between lovebugs takes place immediately after emergence of the adult females. A male lovebug copulates and will remain paired up until the female has been fully fertilized. Copulation takes place for 2–3 days before the female detaches, lays her eggs, and dies. Adult females have been recorded to live up to seven days, while adult males may live up to two to five days, but on average lovebugs live three to four days. However, Thornhill (1976c) recorded recapture data that showed males lived longer in the field than females.


Hardy, D. Elmo (1940). "Studies in New World Plecia (Bibionidae: Diptera)". Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society. Kansas: Kansas (Central States) Entomological Society. 13 (1): 15–27. JSTOR 25081585.
Denmark, Harold; Mead, Frank; Fasulo, Thomas (April 2010). "Lovebug, Plecia nearctica Hardy". Featured Creatures. University of Florida/IFAS. Retrieved 22 September 2010.
Leppla, Norman (September 2009). "Living with lovebugs". Electronic Data Information Source of UF/IFAS Extension. Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Retrieved 23 September 2010.
Buschman, Lawrent L. (June 1976). "Invasion of Florida by the "Lovebug" Plecia Nearctica (Diptera: Bibionidae)" (PDF). Florida Entomologist. Florida Entomological Society. 59 (2): 191–194. doi:10.2307/3493971. JSTOR 3493971. Retrieved 8 February 2016.
Hetrick, L. (March 1970). "Biology of the 'love-bug', (Diptera: Bibionidae)" (PDF). Florida Entomologist. Entomological Society of Florida. 53: 23–26. doi:10.2307/3493110. JSTOR 3493110. Retrieved 23 September 2008.
Cherry, R., and Raid, R. 2000. Seasonal flight of Plecia nearctica (Diptera: Bibionidae) in southern Florida. Florida Entomol. 83: 94–96.
Denmark, H. A., and F. W. Mead. "Lovebug - Plecia Nearctica Hardy." Lovebug – Plecia Nearctica Hardy. DPI Entomology Circular 350, 15 Aug. 1998. Web. 24 July 2014.
"Dreaded lovebugs are back, swarming cars. What you should know about the invasive species". USA Today.
Short, Donald (May 2003). "Lovebugs in Florida". Electronic Data Information Source of UF/IFAS Extension. Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Retrieved 17 July 2008.
Wenston, J., D. E. Short, and M. Pfiester. "Lovebugs in Florida1." EDIS New Publications RSS. University of Florida, 2013. Web. 25 July 2014.
Leppla, Norman C. "Living With Lovebugs." EDIS New Publications RSS. University of Florida/IFAS Extension, 15 Jan. 2007. Web. 24 July 2014
Hetrick LA. 1970a. Biology of the "love-bug," Plecia nearctica (Diptera: Bibionidae). Florida Entomologist 53: 23-26.
Thornhill, Randy. "Dispersal of Plecia Nearctica (Diptera: Bibionidae)." The Florida Entomologist 57.1 (1980): 45. ProQuest. Web. 24 July 2014.
Thornhill, R. 1976c. Reproductive behavior of the lovebug, Plecia nearctica (Diptera: Bibionidae). Ann. Entomol. Soc. Amer. 69:843-847
Hieber, C., J. Cohen. 1983. Sexual Selection in the Lovebug, *Plecia nearctica*: The role of male choice. Evolution, 37(5): 987-992.


The cottonwood borer (Plectrodera scalator) is a species of longhorn beetle found in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains that feeds on cottonwood trees. It is one of the largest insects in North America, with lengths reaching 40 millimetres (1.6 in) and widths, 12 mm (0.47 in). It is the only species in the genus Plectrodera.


The adult cottonwood borer is a large longhorn beetle with a black-and-white coloration and black antennae as long or longer than the body.  The white portions are due to microscopic masses of hair.  The larvae have legless, cylindrical, creamy-white bodies with a brown-to-black head and grow up to 38 millimetres (1.5 in) long.


The female cottonwood borer will chew small pits in the base of the tree in which to lay her eggs.  The larvae can take up to two years to mature, after which they pupate in a root below ground level for approximately three weeks.  Once metamorphosis has completed, the now-adult chews its way out of the root and digs up to the surface.


The spur-winged goose (Plectropterus gambensis) is a large bird in the family Anatidae, related to the geese and the shelducks, but distinct from both of these in a number of anatomical features, and therefore treated in its own subfamily, the Plectropterinae. It occurs in wetlands throughout sub-Saharan Africa.


Adults are 75–115 cm (30–45 in) long and weigh on average 4–6.8 kg (8.8–15.0 lb), rarely up to 10 kg (22 lb), with males noticeably larger than the females. The wingspan can range from 150 to 200 cm (59 to 79 in). One source claims the average weight of males is around 6 kg (13 lb) and the weight of females is around 4.7 kg (10 lb). However, 11 geese of this species banded in South Africa were found to average only 3.87 kg (8.5 lb), with a range of 2.4 to 5.4 kg (5.3 to 11.9 lb). Another study in South Africa found that 58 males weighed an average of 5.52 kg (12.2 lb) and measured 98.1 cm (38.6 in) in total length; while 34 females averaged 3.35 kg (7.4 lb) in weight and 84.2 cm (33.1 in) in total length. Among standard measurements, the wing chord is 42.5 to 55 cm (16.7 to 21.7 in), the bill is 5.7 to 6.4 cm (2.2 to 2.5 in) and the tarsus is 5.7 to 12 cm (2.2 to 4.7 in). They are the largest African waterfowl and are, on average, the world's largest wild "goose", although in average weight, their size is at least rivaled by the Cape Barren goose. Spur-winged geese appear to be more closely allied to shelducks than "true geese" such as those from the Branta and Anser genera. They are mainly black, with a white face and large white wing patches. The long legs are pinkish red in colour. The nominate race P. g. gambensis has extensive white on the belly and flanks, but the smaller-bodied subspecies P. g. niger, which occurs south of the Zambezi River, has only a small white belly patch. From a distance, P. g. niger can appear to be all black.
The male differs from the female, not only in size, but also in having a larger red facial patch extending back from the red bill, and a knob at the base of the upper mandible. This is generally a quiet species. Typically, only males make a call, which consists of a soft bubbling cherwit when taking wing or alarmed. During breeding displays or in instances of alarm, both sexes may utter other inconspicuous calls.
This bird is often poisonous due to its diet of blister beetles. The poison, cantharidin, is held within the tissue of the fowl resulting in poisoning of those that eat the cooked goose. 10 mg of cantharidin can kill a human.


The spur-winged goose is gregarious, generally meeting in small flocks that contain up to 50 birds. They occur around various African rivers, lakes and swamps. Varied sites may be used for post-breeding moulting, in which case large numbers of the geese may congregate. This common species feeds by grazing, but spends the middle part of the day resting by water. Its diet consists predominantly of plant matter such as the vegetative parts and seeds of grasses, sedges and aquatic plants, agricultural grains, fruit (e.g. figs)  and tuberous crops, although it may occasionally supplement the diet with small fish or insects. Dispersal may occur in pursuit of feeding opportunities outside of the breeding season.
The breeding season for spur-winged geese is variable across the range. In the north, breeding generally occurs from August to December, in eastern Africa from January to June and in southern Africa from August to May. This species is highly aggressive to other waterfowl (including conspecifics) during the breeding season. At this time of the year, the geese may violently put the spur on the bend of the wings to use in conflicts with other birds. Adult male geese are especially prone to attacking other adult males. The large nest is usually concealed in vegetation near water, but tree holes, cavities in rocks, old hamerkop, African fish eagle or social weaver nests and even the top of a termite mound and an aardvark burrow have been used as nests. When choosing a tree-nest site, they will generally select a nest located close to the ground at between 20 and 100 cm (7.9 and 39.4 in) high in trees 3 to 4 m (9.8 to 13.1 ft) high. Generally, they prefer quiet, undisturbed stretches of riverbank and wetlands for nest sites.


The spur-winged goose is a common bird of African wetlands. Perhaps the main threat to the species is development and destruction of wetland habitats and unregulated hunting. A counting survey of the population in western Africa wetlands from Senegal to Chad in early 1977 produced a count of 10,000 geese, mostly being found in the Niger basin. This bird is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.


The glossy ibis (Plegadis falcinellus) is a water bird in the order Pelecaniformes and the ibis and spoonbill family Threskiornithidae. The scientific name derives from Ancient Greek plegados and Latin, falcis, both meaning "sickle" and referring to the distinctive shape of the bill.


This is the most widespread ibis species, breeding in scattered sites in warm regions of Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and the Atlantic and Caribbean regions of the Americas. It is thought to have originated in the Old World and spread naturally from Africa to northern South America in the 19th century, from where it spread to North America. The glossy ibis was first found in the New World in 1817 (New Jersey). Audubon saw the species just once in Florida in 1832. It expanded its range substantially northwards in the 1940s and to the west in the 1980s. This species is migratory; most European birds winter in Africa, and in North America birds from north of the Carolinas winter farther south. Though generally suspected to be a migratory species in India, the glossy ibis is resident in western India. Birds from other populations may disperse widely outside the breeding season. While generally declining in Europe, it has recently established a breeding colony in southern Spain, and there appears to be a growing trend for the Spanish birds to winter in Britain and Ireland, with at least 22 sightings in 2010. In 2014, a pair attempted to breed in Lincolnshire, the first such attempt in Britain  A few birds now spend most summers in Ireland, but there is no present evidence of breeding. In New Zealand, a few birds arrive there annually, mostly in the month of July; recently a pair bred amongst a colony of Royal Spoonbill.


Glossy ibises undertake dispersal movements after breeding and are highly nomadic. The more northerly populations are fully migratory and travel on a broad front, for example across the Sahara Desert. Glossy ibis ringed in the Black Sea seem to prefer the Sahel and West Africa to winter, those ringed in the Caspian Sea have been found to move to East Africa, the Arabian peninsula and as far east as Pakistan and India. Numbers of glossy ibis in western India varied dramatically seasonally with the highest numbers being seen in the winter and summers, and drastically declining in the monsoon likely indicating local movements to a suitable area to breed. Populations in temperate regions breed during the local spring, while tropical populations nest to coincide with the rainy season. Nesting is often in mixed-species colonies. When not nesting, flocks of over 100 individuals may occur on migration, and during the winter or dry seasons the species is usually found foraging in small flocks. Glossy ibises often roost communally at night in large flocks, with other species, occasionally in trees which can be some distance from wetland feeding areas.


Glossy ibises feed in very shallow water and nest in freshwater or brackish wetlands with tall dense stands of emergent vegetation such as reeds, papyrus or rushes) and low trees or bushes. They show a preference for marshes at the margins of lakes and rivers but can also be found at lagoons, flood-plains, wet meadows, swamps, reservoirs, sewage ponds, paddies and irrigated farmland. When using farmlands in western India, glossy ibis exhibited strong scale-dependent use of the landscape seasonally preferring using areas with >200 ha of wetlands during the summer, and using areas that had intermediate amounts of wetlands (50-100 ha) in the other seasons. It is less commonly found in coastal locations such as estuaries, deltas, salt marshes and coastal lagoons. Preferred roosting sites are normally in large trees which may be distant from the feeding areas.


The diet of the glossy ibis is variable according to the season and is very dependent on what is available. Prey includes adult and larval insects such as aquatic beetles, dragonflies, damselflies, grasshoppers, crickets, flies and caddisflies, Annelida including leeches, molluscs (e.g. snails and mussels), crustaceans (e.g. crabs and crayfish) and occasionally fish, amphibians, lizards, small snakes and nestling birds.


The glossy ibis is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies. Glossy ibises can be threatened by wetland habitat degradation and loss through drainage, increased salinity, groundwater extraction and invasion by exotic plants.
The common name black curlew may be a reference to the glossy ibis and this name appears in Anglo-Saxon literature. Yalden and Albarella do not mention this species as occurring in medieval England.


The white-spotted slimy salamander (Plethodon cylindraceus) is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae endemic to the Eastern United States. It is one of 55 species in the genus Plethodon, and was one of the first to be described of its cogeners.


Pleuroprucha insulsaria, the common tan wave moth, is a moth of the family Geometridae. The species was first described by Achille Guenée in 1857. It is found in eastern North America, from Nova Scotia to Florida, west to Texas and Colorado and north to Ontario. It ranges south through Mexico and Central America into South America (including Venezuela) and has been recorded as far south as the Galápagos Islands. It has also been recorded from the West Indies, including Jamaica.
The wingspan is 14-21  mm. The wings are mottled yellowish brown with lines running parallel to the outer margin. The subterminal line is pale, slightly wavy and punctuated by small black dots. Adults are on wing from March or April to October in the southern part of the range. In the north, adults have been recorded from June to October.
The larvae feed on a wide range of plants, including Solanum dulcamara, Galium, Zea mays, Solidago, Castanea, Quercus and Salix species.


Pleurozium schreberi, the red-stemmed feathermoss or Schreber's big red stem moss, is a moss with a loose growth pattern. The root name pleuro comes from the Latin for ribs, possibly describing how the parts branch from the stem.
The species occurs on the floor of the boreal forests of Canada, Scandinavia and northern Russia; an example of this occurrence is within the black spruce/feathermoss climax forest, sometimes having moderately dense overstory canopy and featuring a forest floor of feathermosses including, Hylocomium splendens and Ptilium crista-castrensis.
In a study of the effect of the herbicide Asulam on moss growth, Pleurozium schreberi was shown to have intermediate sensitivity to Asulam exposure.


The Cape weaver (Ploceus capensis) is a species of bird in the weaver family, Ploceidae, found in southern Africa.


In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the Cape weaver in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected from the Cape of Good Hope. He used the French name Le carouge du Cap de Bonne Espérance and the Latin Xanthornus Capitis Bonae Spei. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the Cape weaver. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Oriolus capensis and cited Brisson's work. The specific name capensis denotes the Cape of Good Hope. This species is now placed in the genus Ploceus that was erected by the French naturalist Georges Cuvier in 1816. The species is monotypic.


The Cape weaver is a stocky 17 cm long bird with streaked olive-brown upperparts and a long pointed conical bill. The breeding male has a yellow head and underparts, an orange face, and a white iris. The adult female has an olive-yellow head and breast, shading to pale yellow on the lower belly. The female's eyes are brown, but 19% have pale eyes in summer and thus eye colour alone cannot be used to determine the sex. Young birds are similar to the female.


The song of the Cape weaver is a harsh, rather hysterical sizzle. The alarm call is a sharp double chip and the contact call is a harsh "azwit".


The Cape weaver is endemic to South Africa, Lesotho and Eswatini, occurring across much of the area excluding the Kalahari Desert from the Orange River in the Northern Cape south to the Cape of Good Hope then east to northern KwaZulu Natal and inland almost to Bloemfontein in the Free State.
The Cape weaver occurs in open grassland, lowland fynbos, coastal thicket and farmland, so long as there is permanent water and trees. In the more arid, hotter regions it is restricted to upland areas and it never occurs in forest.


When not breeding the Cape Weaver forms flocks, and it congregates in large roosts throughout the year, these may be shared with other birds, including other species of weavers. In some areas they desert the breeding colonies, returning at the commencement of the following breeding season. Anting has been observed and these birds bathe, even in rain or mist.


The Cape weaver is a polygynous, territorial colonial nester, each male may have up to 7 females in a single breeding season. The males normally form colonies of between 2 and 20 males. Each male builds multiple nests within a small territory, which he vigorously defends against other males. Females test the quality of the construction of the nest by pulling at material on the interior; if it is acceptable the female adopts a hunched posture to indicate her readiness to mate. The nest is built by the male in about a week, and is a kidney-shaped, fully waterproof construction made of broad strips of grass or reeds that are woven together. Once a female accepts the nest the male builds an entrance tunnel at its base, while she lines the inside of the nest with fine grass and feathers. The nest is usually attached to the tip of a tree branch, often exotic species such as eucalyptus or willow or it is built in tall wetland vegetation such as reeds Phragmites or reedmace Typha capensis, on utility lines or on fences overlooking water.
It lays a clutch of 2-5 eggs. Eggs are laid in June–February with a peak in October to January in summer rainfall areas and August–October in the winter rainfall zone of the Western Cape. The eggs are incubated by the female for about two weeks. After they hatch, she broods for the first few nights, after which she roosts in an adjacent unused nest. At first, the chicks are fed by the females, but when they are older the males take up a greater role in providing food. The young fledge at about 17 days old.
The Cape weaver is subjected to brood parasitism by the diederik cuckoo. The nests are sometimes heavily infested with parasites such as mites, and the fledglings can be parasitised by ticks. Disused nests may be reused by Cape sparrows and African dusky flycatchers.


The Cape weaver is omnivorous with a diet that is evenly divided between animal and plant matter, particularly seeds, fruit and nectar. It forages in a variety of ways on the ground,  in tree foliage, gleaning food from bark and hawking insects in the air. Its relatively long bill is adapted to feeding on a wide variety of food items and there is a long list of items that this species has been recorded as eating, including various insects, spiders, seeds, nectar, and fruit. The females appear to enjoy a more varied diet than the males. Cape weavers are generalist nectar-feeders and in South Africa they are the major pollinators of aloes.


The Cape weaver is not threatened; in fact, it is common and can be a pest in the orchards and agricultural lands of the Western Cape, where it is occasionally killed in large numbers.


The village weaver  (Ploceus cucullatus), also known as the spotted-backed weaver or black-headed weaver (the latter leading to easy confusion with P. melanocephalus), is a species of bird in the family Ploceidae found in much of sub-Saharan Africa. It has also been introduced to Portugal as well as to the islands of Hispaniola, Martinique, Puerto Rico, Mauritius and Réunion.
This often abundant species occurs in a wide range of open or semi-open habitats, including woodlands and human habitation, and frequently forms large noisy colonies in towns, villages and hotel grounds. This weaver builds a large coarsely woven nest made of grass and leaf strips with a downward facing entrance which is suspended from a branch in a tree. Two to three eggs are laid. Village weavers are colonial breeders, so many nests may hang from one tree.
Village weavers feed principally on seeds and grain, and can be a crop pest, but it will readily take insects, especially when feeding young, which partially redresses the damage to agriculture. The calls of this bird include harsh buzzes and chattering.


Philipp Ludwig Statius Müller provided the first scientific name, Oriolus cucullatus, in his 1776 translation in German of the famous Systema Naturae, written by Carl Linnaeus. The classification provided by Statius Muller was based on a description by Buffon, who in turn made use of work by Mathurin Jacques Brisson. Brisson was the first to publish a black-and-white etching of the bird in 1760. The first colored figure was made by François-Nicolas Martinet in a book titled Planches enluminées d'histoire naturelle by Edme-Louis Daubenton, that was published in 1783. The specimen described by Brisson was collected in Senegal by Michel Adanson between 1748 and 1754, and who sent it to René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur in France. Latham eventually gave the scientific name Oriolus textor in 1790. Based on Oriolus textor, Johann Friedrich Gmelin erected in 1825 a new genus he named Textor. This name has priority over the use of the genus name in the combination Textor alecto that Temminck described in 1828, and which is a synonym for the first name of the white-billed buffalo-weaver, Coccothraustes albirostris, as named by Vieillot in 1817, and now assigned to the genus Bubalornis. The species epithet cucullatus is Latin and means "hooded".
In 1789, Johann Friedrich Gmelin distinguished Loxia abyssinica, which was later recognised as a subspecies of the village weaver and for which the new combination P. c. abyssinicus was created. Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot described a slightly different bird that he called subspecies collaris in 1819. Nicholas Aylward Vigors in 1831 distinguished subspecies spilonotus.


Eight subspecies are recognized:
Ploceus cucullatus cucullatus – (Müller, 1776): The nominate subspecies occurs from Mauritania, Senegal and Gambia to southern Chad and Cameroon. It also can be found on Bioko. This nominate subspecies was introduced to Hispaniola.
Ploceus cucullatus abyssinicus – (Gmelin, JF, 1789): Found in northern Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia.
Ploceus cucullatus bohndorffi – Reichenow, 1887: Found in southern Sudan, northern Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, western Kenya and north-western Tanzania.
Ploceus cucullatus frobenii – Reichenow, 1923: Found in southern and south-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
Mottled weaver (Ploceus cucullatus collaris) – Vieillot, 1819: Found in Gabon, western Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola.
Ploceus cucullatus graueri – Hartert, 1911: Found in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and western Tanzania.
Layard's weaver (Ploceus cucullatus nigriceps) – (Layard, EL, 1867): Found from southern Somalia and eastern Kenya through eastern and southern Tanzania to south-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, southern Angola and north-eastern Namibia, western Zimbabwe, eastern Zambia and central Mozambique. It also occurs on São Tomé where it was probably introduced.
Spotted-backed weaver (Ploceus cucullatus spilonotus) – Vigors, 1831:, Found in south-eastern Botswana, eastern South Africa and southern Mozambique. This subspecies was introduced to Mauritius, Réunion and Venezuela.


The village weaver is a stocky 15–17 cm bird with a strong conical bill and dark reddish eyes. In the northern part of its range, the breeding male has a black head edged by chestnut (typically most distinct on the nape and chest). Towards the southern part of its range, the amount of black and chestnut diminish, and the breeding males of the southernmost subspecies only have a black face and throat, while the nape and crown are yellow. In all subspecies the breeding male has a black bill, black and yellow upperparts and wings, and yellow underparts.
The non-breeding male has a yellow head with an olive crown, grey upperparts and whitish underparts. The wings remain yellow and black. The adult female has streaked olive upperparts, yellow and black wings, and pale yellow underparts. Young birds are like the female but browner on the back.


The village weaver is among the more common weaver species, and is widespread in Sub-Saharan Africa, but is absent from the arid regions in the southwest and northeast. It has been introduced to islands in the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean, where it has adapted well to the climate similar to its original range.


Village weavers forage and roost in large groups, often with other weaver species. In some areas, they move periodically along fixed routes. The birds look for food on the ground, but also look up to search vegetation and trees. The village weaver nests in colonies and is very active during the breeding season. Birds fly in and leave again constantly, making a lot of noise. Colonies can contain as many as 150 nests, but anything between eight and a hundred nests in a single tree is usual.
A village weaver's nest is 14–17 cm (5.5–6.7 in) long and 11–13 cm (4.3–5.1 in) high. The entrance is mostly extended into a tube of 4–8 cm (1.6–3.1 in) long. The male weaves the structure of the nest using long strips of leaf, that he has torn from palms or large grass species such as Arundo donax. The nest is roofed, ovoid or kidney-shaped, internally consisting of a nesting chamber that is separated by a ground sill from an antechamber, that has the entrance of the entire nest at the bottom. On the inside, the ceiling is made of strips of grass or other leaves, which are simply inserted instead of woven-in. The floor on the inside is lined by short, thatched strips of palm, grass blades or heads, and feathers. The nest requires about three hundred long strips of leaf, which the male tears off and transports one by one. The male gathers building material throughout the building process, during which he works with his feet in exactly the same position, and maintaining the same orientation. He starts by creating the attachment by weaving around mostly two hanging branches just below a fork, a foot on both of them, which he includes in a ring he constructs by weaving in the plain of the branches at the edge of his reach. He than extends the high end of the ring in front of its head, gradually working towards his feet creating a half-globe, that is the nesting chamber. The male continues by constructing the roof of the antechamber, working over his head. This is followed by lining the ceiling, and constructing the entrance tube, hanging upside-down, but still with his feet at the same spots. The weaving technique consists of seizing a strip of near the end and double the strip back on itself. Next he pokes the end with a vibrating movement in between his previous work until it sticks. He then release it, moves his head to the other side of the nest wall, seizes the strip again and pokes it in somewhere. He keeps repeating this, regularly reversing the direction in which he weaves the strip, poking and pulling the strip through holes until the entire length is used. The female collects material too, but she occupies herself only with the lining of the nesting cup.


The spectacled weaver (Ploceus ocularis) is a species of bird in the family Ploceidae. It is found widely in woodland, forest edge and gardens of central, eastern and south-eastern Africa, but is absent from the most arid regions (such as the Karoo) and dense, primary rainforest. This common species breeds in solitary pairs, and both sexes are bright yellow, have an olive-yellow back, black "spectacles" and pale eyes. The male has a black throat.


Plodia interpunctella is found on every continent in tropical habitats, excluding Antarctica. Within the United States, the moth is most commonly found in Florida, where it thrives in the tropical habitat. The moth lives in a wide range of conditions, making it a persistent pest. It is often found at food storage facilities worldwide, specifically in grain bins or grain storage buildings.


Pluchea camphorata, known as camphorweed or marsh-fleabane, is a small flowering herbaceous annual plant of the family Asteraceae.


Pluchea camphorata is a small herbaceous plant that grows approximately 3 ft (0.91 m) tall, with blooms of purple-pink flowers formed in small heads in rounded clusters. The leaves are alternate, serrate, and elliptic to ovate or lance-shaped. The leaves form on short petioles. They have granular, sessile resin globules on the leaves and at the ends of the stems and branches of the plant. This plant's nutlets range from pink to tan. The roots are fibrous.


Pluchea camphorata is in the family Asteraceae, or Compositae, which is a very diverse family containing approximately 23,000 species. Pluchea is a genus of several species of perennial or annual herbs. They are erect plants, with densely short pubescent, terete to obscurely angled, strictly to freely branched stems. Pluchea have alternate, serrate, the teeth callous-thickened, petiolate to sessile leaves. Pluchea have corymbrose, involucres hemispheric to campanulate, many-flowered, bracts imbricate heads. Pluchea have discoid, perfect, small flowers and small cylindrical, 5 ribbed nutlets. Pluchea have whitish, capillary, minutely, antrorsely barbed pappus bristles. Pluchea rosea have pink corollas, elliptic to elliptic-oblong leaves, and black nutlets. Pluchea foetida have cream corollas and pinkish nutlets. Pluchea purpurascens have pink corollas and pink to tan nutlets. The three species bloom from August to October and bloom in similar habitats. There is doubt about the identity of Pluchea camphorata due to confusion among different botanists.


Pluchea camphorata grows mostly in the eastern United States, anywhere from Florida to Texas and as far north as Michigan. Pluchea camphorata is native to the lower forty-eight states in the United States. Habitats include, alluvial swamps, seasonally flooded sloughs, floodplain oxbow ponds, wet clay flat-woods and clearings, ditches, and impoundment shores.<


Pluchea camphorata plant blooms from August to October. Pluchea camphorata is listed as endangered in Maryland and Ohio. This plant is threatened by dredging and filling, water pollution, and exotic species.


Traditional medicinal use of Pluchea camphorata includes applying the leaves to wounds to reduce swelling and facilitate healing. Certain cultures believe that Camphorweed stimulates tissue by moving blood to the surface. While culturally important, these claims require more research for safe use.


Plumbago zeylanica, commonly known as Ceylon leadwort, doctorbush or wild leadwort, is a species of plumbago with a pantropical distribution. Carl Linnaeus described the paleotropical P. zeylanica and Neotropical P. scandens as separate species, but they are currently considered synonymous.


Plumbago zeylanica is a herbaceous plant with glabrous stems that are climbing, prostrate, or erect. The leaves are petiolate or sessile and have ovate, lance-elliptic, or spatulate to oblanceolate blades that measure 5-9 × 2.5–4 cm in length. Bases are attenuate while apexes are acute, acuminate, or obtuse. Inflorescences are 3–15 cm in length and have glandular, viscid rachises. Bracts are lanceolate and 3-7 × 1–2 mm long. The heterostylous flowers have white corollas 17–33 mm in diameter and tubes 12.5–28 mm in length. Capsules are 7.5–8 mm long and contain are reddish brown to dark brown seeds.


Plumbago zeylanica grows throughout the tropical and sub-tropical climates of the world, including Australia and India.  In Australia, it grows in the understory of monsoon forests and vine thickets from sea level to 900 m. In Dhofar, Oman, this species is often found growing on Olea trunks.


Plumbago zeylanica is a food plant for the Cassius blue (Leptotes cassius), marine blue (L. marina), and zebra blue (L. plinius) during their larval stages.


Early folk medicine used the crushed plant internally and externally as an abortifacient. In Ayurveda, P. zeylanica is known as chitrak, meaning "the spotted one". It is used with other herbs to lessen its intense pungency.


Plumeria rubra is a deciduous plant species belonging to the genus Plumeria. Originally native to Mexico, Central America, Colombia and Venezuela, it has been widely cultivated in subtropical and tropical climates worldwide and is a popular garden and park plant, as well as being used in temples and cemeteries. It grows as a spreading tree to 7–8 m (23–26 ft) high and wide, and is flushed with fragrant flowers of shades of pink, white and yellow over the summer and autumn.
Plumeria rubra was one of the many species first described by Carl Linnaeus, and appeared in the 1753 edition of Species Plantarum. Its specific epithet is derived from the Latin ruber "red". The epithets acuminata, acutifolia, and lutea are seen, but these are invalid. Its common names include frangipani, red paucipan, red-jasmine, red frangipani, common frangipani, temple tree, or simply plumeria.
Despite its common name, the species is not a "true jasmine" and not of the genus Jasminum.


The common name “frangipani” comes from an Italian noble family, a sixteenth-century marquess of which invented a plumeria-scented perfume. The genus name honors Charles Plumier, who was a French monk of the Franciscan order, and a botanist.
In Mexico the common name is cacaloxóchitl or cacaloxúchitl. The name comes from Nahuatl and means “crow’s flower”. P. rubra was declared the national flower of Nicaragua in 1971, where it is known as sacuanjoche.  In Spanish, frangipanis are also referred to as alhelí, alhelí cimarrón, and suche. The term melia is a Hawaiian one.  In the Cook Islands, it is known as tipani. It is grown extensively in southern and western parts of India, where it is named champa or a derivative thereof such as chaaphaa, champige etc. It is also referred to as champa in Pakistan. In Cambodia it is given the names châmpéi krahâ:m (also romanised as krahom, meaning 'red'), or châmpéi slük sruëch, while the French term for the species is frangipanier à fleurs rouges.  In Sri Lanka, it is known as araliya in Sinhalese. It is known by many names in Brazil, including jasmim-de-caiena, jasmin-do-pará, and jasmin-manga. Another name it has in Portuguese is flor-de-Santo-Antônio. In Myanmar, it is referred to as mawk-sam-ka, mawk-sam-pailong, and sonpabataing. In China, it has the common name ji dan hua, and in the United States, it is referred to as nosegay. In the Philippines, it is known as the kalachuchi.


Plumeria rubra belongs to the dogbane family and grows as a spreading shrub or small tree to a height of 2–8 m (5–25 ft) and similar width. It has a thick succulent trunk and sausage-like blunt branches covered with a thin grey bark. The branches are somewhat brittle and when broken, ooze a white latex that can be irritating to the skin and mucous membranes. This latex found in the stem of the plants is in fact toxic, but not deadly unless present in large quantities. The large green leaves can reach 30 to 50 cm (12 to 20 in) long and are arranged alternately and clustered at the end of the branches. The boles of these plants can be up to 25 cm in the wild. It tends to be smaller in cultivation.
They are deciduous, falling in the cooler months of the year. The flowers are terminal, appearing at the ends of branches over the summer. Often profuse and very prominent, they are strongly fragrant, and have five petals. The flowers give off their fragrance in the morning and in the evening. This fragrance is similar to that of rose, citrus, and cinnamon. The colors range from the common pink to white with shades of yellow in the centre of the flower. Initially tubular before opening out, the flowers are 5–7.5 cm (2–3 in) in diameter, and only rarely go on to produce seed - 20-60 winged seeds are contained in a 17.5 cm (7 in) pod. The fruits are cylindrical pods that are rarely found in cultivation.


Its native range extends from the Baja California cape into central Mexico south through Central America to Colombia and Venezuela in South America. It is cultivated in the tropical regions of the world, and is perhaps naturalized in some parts of India.
More specifically, P. rubra is cultivated in the lowlands and the Yungas in Bolivia, the coastal and Andean regions of Ecuador, and the Amazonian and Andean regions of Peru, where it inhabits disturbed areas. P. rubra has been introduced into many countries and islands, including South Africa, Yemen, Chad, and Burundi. It has been found growing everywhere in Myanmar except in very cool mountainous regions. It has been introduced both in China and Pakistan and has been naturalized in the Analamanga & Betsiboka regions of Madagascar. It is native to the Department of Antioquia in Colombia, and is distributed in countries such as Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Mexico, El Salvador, Belize, and, Honduras, along with the West Indies. It is also widely cultivated in Panama.
P. rubra generally inhabits hot and rocky areas with dry to moderate rainfall. They can survive in locations with prominent dry seasons, where they can flower on the bare branches, or in more humid conditions, where they can remain evergreen. It can also be found in rocky forests, mountain slopes, and even occasionally on plains or savannas. It occupies elevations of 500 to 1000 meters but can be found up to elevations of 1500 meters.


The species is cultivated around the world in subtropical and tropical climates. In Australia, it is widely seen in cultivation in Sydney and Perth and warmer frost free climates northwards. In the mainland United States, it tolerates USDA Hardiness zones 10B to 11 (southern coastal California and the southern tip of Florida). It is also grown in Hawaii to an altitude of 2000 m. They tolerate a wide variety of soils, from acid to alkaline and sandy to clay. These plants grow best in dry to medium moisture, well-drained soils in full sun and will bloom through most of the year in tropical areas. They do not grow well in wet soils and in areas with temperatures below 10 °C (50 °F) during the winter seasons, the plants will stop blooming and shed their leaves. Established plants are also very salt tolerant and tolerate even salt-laden winds. Widely available in nurseries, frangipanis are readily propagated by cuttings of branches taken in cooler months and left to dry for a week or more. As well as gardens and street- and park planting, frangipanis are planted in temples and cemeteries.
Plumeria rubra is an important crop in Hawaii, with over 14 million flowers sold to be used in leis there in 2005.
In temperate areas P. rubra must be grown under glass, in a large conservatory or similar, due to its requirement for warm conditions. However it may be placed outside in a sheltered sunny spot during the summer months. In the United Kingdom it has gained the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit.
Some forms in cultivation are hybrids between this species and Plumeria obtusa; these have rounded rather than pointed leaves and are less likely to be deciduous. The white and yellow cultivar "Singapore" flowers all year round in Hawaii.
Coleosporium plumeriae, known as plumeria rust or frangipani rust, is a fungus which attacks young leaves of P. rubra. It causes a brownish or orange powdery coating or blistering of leaves. It has been recorded from Hawaii and the east coast of Australia. It was first recognised by the French mycologist Narcisse Théophile Patouillard on Guadeloupe Island in the eastern Caribbean in 1902, and had reached Taiwan by 2005.