Fall has arrived in north central Florida and with it come fall wildflowers. The weather hasn’t actually cooled much yet, but the days are definitely getting shorter and animals are looking to fatten up before the cooler temperatures arrive. The main flowers that we see around here this time of year are the blackjacks (also known as hairy beggarsticks becasue of the seeds they produce that stick to everything). The flowers themselves are pretty, but my favorite part about them is that they attract pollinators like crazy. On a sunny afternoon if you go out into a field of these flowers you’ll be guaranteed to see multiple species of butterflies, wasps, and bees, all taking advantage of the ample pollen and nectar that allows them to survive. This beauty is a giant swallowtail butterfly (Papilio cresphontes), a fairly common but very striking fall butterfly. It had been feeding in the flowers and was looking for a puddle on my porch. It kept flying around, landing sipping from a puddle, and then moving on. It never went very far, though, and eventually it returned to the flowers.