Description
Speckled Woods on Columbine Card by Julian Williams
SKU: B56
Greeting card with coloured envelope featuring butterflies
These Bird cards are part of our Nature Notes Series
These cards include an introductory text on the back of the cards. TEXT written on the back of this card reads:
Speckled Woods (Pararge aegeria) on Columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris)
These inconspicuous brown butterflies with cream spots are commonly seen fluttering and sunning themselves amongst the flowery grasses in the dappled light of woodland glades. The species covers a huge range across Northern and Southern Europe, Russia as far as Siberia, with sub-species in Northern Africa.
The male adult butterflies are slightly smaller and very territorial. The caterpillars are green with a short, forked tail, and feed on a variety of grasses. They overwinter as green or dark brown chrysalises which are ready to hatch on the first warm days in mid spring, after which the butterflies can be seen flying throughout the summer months.
The Columbine’s flowers name is derived from the Latin word for dove ‘columba’ because the petals are said to look like 5 doves sat in a circle facing each other. In Christian mythology the dove-like flowers are seen as a symbol of the Virgin Mary and the Holy Spirit. The Vikings associated the columbine with the fertility goddess Freya and the Greeks with Aphrodite. In Tudor England the flower was said to resemble the hat of a court jester, thus in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Ophelia says, “There’s fennel for you and columbines,” the latter referring to folly.
